They say that musical styles come back en vogue every fifteen years. I couldn’t give you an exact date on when the old school of metal passed away but the last two years have seen such revivalist enthusiasm from the younger breeds I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a comparison between some of the retro releases the big metal indies are putting out.

We got four labels here; Candlelight Records is represented by Denver based Havok and Blood Tsunami, Metal Blade is represented by Lazarus AD (one of their members wears an Avenged Sevenfold T-shirt so they’ll get one sparrow taken out of their score for that) Earache Records is represented by Cauldron, whose track included in the excellent Heavy Metal Killers compilation gave me the shits, and White Wizzard who are from an even older school than these retro thrashers. Finally we got Prosthetic Records who are issuing the second album from Japan’s Grief of War. Read on and spread the word…

The best thing about Havok’s debut Burn is the artwork. I love the drawing and I love the choice of colors even more. What I don’t dig very much is their standard thrash sound. Certainly, no one is listening to this wave of old school thrashers seeking for something inventive, new or groundbreaking, but some of Havok's music sounds so Testament-like is almost a rip off. Especially on the song “Morbid Symmetry” where vocalist David Sanchez adopts Chuck Billy’s exact pitch. Have you noticed how most retro thrash bands sound more like Testament than old Metallica? If only life was fair you know who’d be on top of the world now. Still, that’s no excuse to sound this much like Testament, especially if you don’t have an Alex Skolnick playing the guitar. Axedude Shawn Chavez is a young lad, promising with his leads no doubt about it, but Havok’s tunes need more character, balls and personality. 

Metal Blade’s only entry is Lazarus A.D. whose debut The Onslaught for starters has a bigger, fuller, bulkier and heavier sound than that of Havok. Their poor choice of T-shirts is balanced out by another member wearing an Immortal T-shirt. The Onslaught is a very rich thrash metal record. That’s to say is filling as fuck. It’s a satisfying listen to say the least.  It not only sounds modern without sounding like new thrash but its packed with vicious and well-arranged riffs and some of the best thrash metal jams I’ve ever heard. You only need to get to the second tune “Thou Shall Not Fear” to notice that this quartet isn’t kidding around. When they aren’t soloing and the singer isn’t barking they are laying down violent grooves like only the great ones can. That said, there is a touch of modernity to their sound. There are bits of death metal beats and the riffs on occasion, and briefly, move so fast they distort and smear themselves against the speakers. In the world of Lazarus A.D. you can hear their influences, but no one can say they sound exactly like anyone else.    

Earache’s first entry comes from Cauldron who no doubt about it deserve an honorable mention for such cool cover artwork. Can I see a nipple there?  Mmmmhhh. Probably. Probably not. I was familiar with this band’s tune “Chained Up in Chains” and I wasn’t all that thrilled with it. Vocally, Jason DeCay has the same ambiguous almost chick-like tone of Don Dokken, which didn’t score points. But the tune grew on me. There is something salacious and sleazy about it and Cauldron’s first full-length Chained to the Night retains those same qualities. The music isn’t all that aggressive. The playing is rudimentary at best. The vocals are underwhelming. And yet this is so heavy metal I can’t help but feel like having a beer and wearing some really tight jeans. Cauldron doesn’t get to thrash metal levels, they seem more than content banging out some middle of the road heavy metal that by being so self aware is more than that.  I can’t stand Dokken, but I can listen to Chained to the Night all the way through and not feel like punching them in the face. 

Prosthetic’s Grief of War is an intense one beat/one tempo thrash metal band. In a field of youngsters fixated with Testament, they almost sound groundbreaking but also rather monotonous and stiff.  I reviewed their 2005 effort A Mounting Crisis…As Their Fury Got Released and I wasn’t all that satisfied. Matter of fact, after I was done listening to it I immediately went looking for my copy of Bonded by Blood just to kill the thrashy cravings. The addition of a permanent drummer may have served them well as the band sounds solid and tight, but let’s face it, their tunes don’t require many skills, and their songwriting reveals more than one flaw. The lack of imagination is rather alarming. The best part of each tune is when the solos break in. The worst part is all the rest, a simplistic, generic and boring riff played time and time again. Second tune “Disorder” is as bad a thrash metal tune as I’ve ever heard. Grief of War gets more violent approaching early Slayer-like intensity (“Captured Soul Eternity”). That’s when it gets good but that rarely happens.  

The inclusion of Blood Tsunami may not be totally fair to every other bands included in this piece. The fact that their line up includes one Emperor shall probably tip the scale towards their end, but to be frank, I don’t really care much about Emperor. Once their music got too grand their albums got too grand for me too. Blood Tsunami’s debut Thrash Metal was solid and so is their sophomore effort Grand Feast for Vultures. Nothing more. That’s basically it. Blood Tsunami have a giant affinity for Slayer. Think of vintage Slayer with dual vocals, one deep growler and one shrieky and more ghostly. It’s the riffs where it’s at though. They come flying off this record, and when is solo time, they do it just like King and Hanneman, desperate sounds abound. Two surprises await the end of Grand Feast for Vultures; both tracks last over ten minutes. That’s not necessarily a good thing and Blood Tsunami prove that.  There is absolutely no need for ten minute songs in thrash metal. Boring!

White Wizzard hail from Los Angeles and they are listed as players of traditional heavy metal. That means that their vocalist must be able to actually sing. Wyatt Anderson is in fact a capable vocalist. He is so good indeed I wouldn’t be surprised if down the road he got recruited by a band like Journey. He’d fit like an old shoe, let me tell you. High Speed GTO is their second EP and in parts it sounds mighty fine. It helps that I am sucker for great melodies and White Wizzard features two great guitarists and a bass player that looks a lot like Wino Weinrich. That said, a band like White Wizzard has great potential to suck big time. Tunes like “Into the Night” are closer to Night Ranger (who absolutely suck) than they are to Iron Maiden and in my world that’s a very big NO-NO.  

If these bands truly represent their labels then Metal Blade wins the Retro Metal Square Off. The California based label still knows their shit.