Every now and then a release arrives in my hands that is such a perfectly distilled slug of heavy metal it provokes a physical reaction. Heart beat quickening, sweaty palms, stupid grin on face… The overwhelming urge to get up, get drunk and spend the night in some pit of a pub backroom where the only sound loud, fast and heavy, playing until beleaguered brain cells fade and you wake up covered in mosh-pit bruises. This is the sound of old school death metal meets old school thrash. Metal for all those of us bored to tears with metalcore, deathcore and anything new, ‘nu’, or, that horrendous word for shameless band-wagoning, the latest ‘revival’. Ecocide, as much as the name suggests otherwise, are not going to change the world just yet. Nor are they the fastest or the heaviest band I could introduce you to. But this is just a great debut album crackling with self-belief, energy and purpose. It’s also about as authentic as metal gets these days, a band carrying the torch – the sound of heavy metal in the hands of those who can be trusted not to fuck it up.
Things have obviously evolved quickly for Ecocide. The band began in 2010 as a thrash outfit called Toxic Napalm. A name change was followed last year by a demo and the intensity seems to have gone up a notch at the same time. But, despite the ferocity of some of the tracks, the old influences shine through: at its core, this is a thrash metal album. Underneath all the death metal technical ability and finery, Eye of Wicked Sight chugs and thrashes along with the best of them while throwing in some nice little twists and turns that thrash bands used to do so well. But it’s been injected with enough death metal testosterone to keep a herd of Bulgarian weightlifters busy for a month. The result is a hardened, in-your-face sound with metal roots so deep in the ground they reach all the way back to the 1980s. The essence of old school, Puppets-era Metallica, Slayer and Coroner meets Pestilence and Death. The energy and hooks of thrash meets the pummelling precision of death metal.
After a slightly bizarre intro, the album kicks off with Planet Eater, a kind of lesson in death metal that sets the pitch for the rest of the album perfectly. It’s a no-frills sucker punch that then gives Ecocide some room to work up some of their more interesting moves. By the third title track they’ve set the bar for their talents pretty high. The title track Eye of Wicked Sight is one of those four minute wonders that somehow manages to pack so much in it feels far longer. It’s not ground breaking but what they lack in originality they make up for in tightly-arranged, razor-sharp focus. All their energy is channelled into repackaging, polishing and slinging the denim and leather-clad grenade back at us.
Things flip easily backwards and forwards between hardcore thrash moments (Beneath the Flesh) and the more intense (Crawling from the Crypt) for the remainder of the album. A refreshing energy and some decent riffs. The Eye of Wicked Sight packs about as much youthful spirit as I’ve heard in a debut for a long time. The drumming is immense, the riffs never dull, the solos virtually non-existent and a singer with a voice like the sound of wire wool. The usual question applies: why are there so many average bands getting support when a band like Ecocide comes to us with their debut self-released? True, this is probably not the most bankable sound but draws together so many great aspects of metal. This is the sound of a band hitting its stride. The sound of dirty, skin-tight jeans and white Reebok trainers heading for the grottiest club with the loudest speakers.
(8/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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