DEMOLITION HAMMER - "Epidemic of Violence" CD

Imported from Kill Again Records (Brazil)

OFFICIAL CD REISSUE

Arguably the greatest death/thrash metal album EVER released! Makes mincemeat out of its competitors. Is it thrash metal? Is it death metal? Who fucking cares? IT'S FUCKING HEAVIER AND MORE UNRELENTING THAN MOST ALBUMS FROM EITHER GENRE!!

MANDATORY IN YOUR COLLECTION!

If Tortured Existence was our appetizer, then Epidemic of Violence is the main course. Building on the foundations they had built in 1990, Demolition Hammer brings their flavor of thrash metal to its zenith, creating the perfect blend of death and thrash on a record that annihilates the senses from the first note.

The opener of Skull Fracturing Nightmare provides the palette test with poems of death and agony with the backdrop of torture, accompanied by a guitar tone that is virtually unchanged from Tortured Existence, a feat that not many bands can say they've done. The solos in this track are blistering and malignant, piercing your skull just like the spikes in an iron maiden. The next four tracks provide a noxious combination of death and thrash metal, blistering solos causing necrosis in your ear canals, brutal riffs that'll leave black and discharging pustules in your lungs and spine-shattering bass-lines underlying vocals that sound like Jeff Becerra if he was possessed by the Devil himself and a continuation of pathological and scientific themes as the band goes into clinical detail with every possible way a person can be mutilated, tortured and killed before a brief moment of respite where the crowd surrounds you, culminating in the ultimate Demolition Hammer track: Epidemic of Violence.

Hoo boy, the title track starts off with what has got to be the fastest thrash riff I've ever heard: a blistering showcase of the speed and extremity that thrash is known for turned up to twenty-fucking-two. What immediately follows is a chorus that doesn't just crush your skull, but burns the oozing grey matter that is expelled to make sure that you're thoroughly dead. With themes of violence, massacres and brutal homicides, its fitting that this song routinely beats your brain and gives you auditory whiplash before a genocidal solo wails through the air. Soon enough, the most brutal breakdown at speed is heard while drums blare out a brutal galloping assault to remind everyone of the sonic massacre that is taking place. Another brutal solo blazes through the headphones while the song closes, bringing this chapter of violence and mayhem to an abrupt and bloody end.

The last two songs offer gorey bloodbaths and surgeries, strained vocals emulating the pained screams of a faceless predator's victims while the guitars wail alongside the silent screams of those in test tubes. Drums beat with the speed of a fearful heart running for safety while the depraved stalker gives chase as guitars roar with the fury of a psychotic doctor's crazed laughter following grotesque bouts of medical malpractice.

Epidemic of Violence closes with one last rush of death-thrash madness before silence overtakes the speakers. One last hoorah for thrash before the 90s claimed another victim in the groove metal trend. - Metal Archives review