Of all the extreme metal genres, Thrash Metal perhaps has been the most stubborn and refused to die. Spawning from the doldrums of traditional Heavy Metal, it has stubbornly clung on. Through the dreadful grunge years, through alt-metal and beyond, it has continued to exist. The giants of the oeuvre might – on the whole – have somewhat mellowed with age, but there are younger whippersnappers still managing to do justice to the style.
Enter Spain’s Holycide. Now, Espania may not be the first place in the world that you associate with Thrash Metal, but the band have been about since 2004, and released their first album back in 2017. This is their third full length offering, and therefore I was expecting a band that sounded assured and tight.
I was not disappointed. “Towards Idiocracy” is a really polished, enjoyable and energetic slice of Thrash. It leans pretty heavily into the more modern sounds of European Thrash, particularly to my ears like latter-day Sodom, but with plenty of Slayer and Kreator influences around too. One of the stand-out tracks of the album, “Remote Control” for instance brings the mid-tempo stomp via some tremendous down-picking riffage and insistent drumming. There’s some extremely atmospheric soloing activity here too, with a really neat tempo change mid-section that helps keep the breakneck speed sections exciting.
In terms of the songwriting, this album is tight. There really aren’t any segments which you could consider filler of a lesser quality. Tracks like “Technophobia” would quite easily sit alongside the stronger material on the last couple of Kreator albums, while the band even chuck in a cheeky Atrophy cover for all you metal scholars out there (a rip-roaring production of “Chemical Dependency”).
It’s well produced, though it does favour the razor-sharp guitar tone. Some might baulk at this and prefer a little more oomph to the rhythm section, but personally I like that this manages to marry the best of traditional thrash metal sound without sacrificing its personality to the mantra of modern all-dials-set-to-11 production.
I think I’m going to have to check out the back catalogue. Good job guys! (Thrash metal will never die).
(8/10 Chris Davison)
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