Review Summary: Unrelenting thrash metal with obvious inspirations from Kreator’s Extreme Aggression.
Revival thrash band Deathraiser hails from Brazil who creates, like mentioned, unrelenting thrash metal with influences from Kreator’s
Extreme Aggression and probably anything else that is extremely fast like bullets and humanities downfall. Forming in 2006 Deathraiser has released one demo and two splits but with their first and only LP to date,
Violent Aggression. This shows them at the top of their game as a force to be truly reckoned with.
Violent Aggression is a non-stop fury of thrash riffs that almost never drop between 180-200bpms. Their riffs are well put together and transition rather tastefully, but due to the non-stop tempos it can be quite monotonous at times but speed was their obvious goal and thrashing is about not giving a fuk. When you compare tempos of
Extreme Aggression with
Violent Aggression you will notice that the latter is pretty much twice as fast. In fact, imagine the fastest thrash album you’ve ever heard…, yup, this is faster. But, being fast in the world of thrash metal is nothing new and simply being fast does not mean the music is actually good. With Kreator’s style you will find more hooks and breakdowns fused within their speed; adding many textures that create good album flow. Deathraiser’s style is pretty much only speed, but, they do it
very well. One would truly only want to listen to this album if they want in-your-face thrash metal that leaves no survivors. Even for a person who’s been listening to thrash for years, I was slightly blown back. Every track is as fast as the last but the riffs are so tasty I couldn’t help in enjoying myself.
The dueling guitars of Thiago and Ramon are top-notch. Their riffs work in perfect harmony with the brutal-merciless drums of William. Tracks like “Annihilation of Masses” and “Enslaved by Cross” showcase the band executing some of the most technical riffs you will ever heard in thrash metal. The solos in the album fit perfectly as they are always summoned during moments of intensity that raise the aggressive natures to their optimum levels. While the bass work can be heard its presence isn’t always noticeable as the guitar and production out-shadows anything Junior is doing. And, speaking of production, which is still a highlight, it resembles more of a balance between old school and new school thrash. With such a violent display of thrash music you wouldn’t want trebly levels that destroy your ears so the producers did a fine job here to say the least.
Now while
Violent Aggression is an excellent modern thrash album that destroys most other modern-day thrash acts, they still have room for improvement. Being that they showed fans they are more than capable of destroying the speed of sound they could grow in areas of creativity within song structures, originality of emotional feel, and dynamics. If they continue to stay true to this style of aggression while adding groovy-tasty-alternate tempos and riffs, Deathraiser could be within the top 5 best modern day thrash acts.
