By Avinash Mittur

When the thrash revival (or “re-thrash” as I’ve seen it called as of late) was at its peak, the new bands seemed eager to jack the riffs, fashion and social priorities (i.e. ‘fuck the posers!’) of the Bay Area legends like Exodus and Testament, and march through the brutal musical territory carved out by the likes of Kreator and Sodom. The crossover thrash movement was something that not even new bands dared to return to though. Acts like D.R.I., Dr. Know, and Stormtroopers of Death seemed forever contained in their own time bubble, only having their legacy kept alive through live shows and having their logos slapped on patch jackets. Dallas, TX’s Power Trip are a truly special bunch of dudes then. Their debut record on Southern Lord Recordings, Manifest Decimation, is a confident and rabid burst of vintage crossover released in a time when no one seems to want to mess with that sound. It’s a promising entry into the metal world for this young band, and it’ll satisfy anyone who’s gotten bored with the sounds that the millions of thrash kiddies have played to death.

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By Avinash Mittur

The Bay Area seems to just about have it all when it comes to quality modern heavy metal. Strangely enough though, with the exception of San Jose’s Sleep, classic stoner rock and doom metal seems to have evaded the local scenes. Luckily for us that can’t get enough of the Almighty Riff though, Orchid from San Francisco have been able to nicely fill that gap in recent years. With barely any promotion and very rare live performances, Orchid have been one of the Bay Area’s best kept secrets until now. That’s truly a shame, because I’ll be damned if Orchid aren’t one of the most likable and downright cool acts coming out of the weird little town of San Francisco right now. In the two years since their first full length, Capricorn, Orchid have been rapidly gaining a following, thanks to a pair of killer EPs released in the last year and a small number of near-legendary shows at home. The band’s new record, The Mouths of Madness, is better than any fan could have hoped for though. It’s a loving tribute to the classic heavy music of old and it’s one of the best rock and roll albums anyone will hear all summer. Continue reading →

By Avinash Mittur

As most of you all know, as of May 2013 the music world has two bands calling themselves Queensrÿche. The version led by vocalist Geoff Tate has been touring the nation performing the original lineup’s classic Operation: Mindcrime album, but not before spending about six weeks in the studio putting together a new effort, Frequency Unknown. Many amazingly talented musicians got the chance to throw an ingredient into this musical gumbo, including a handful of the best the Bay Area has to offer. Sadly, the resulting record is a fundamentally mediocre hard rock album. While Frequency Unknown is extremely far removed from the sound that Queensrÿche established its legacy on, this album isn’t the trainwreck that many were expecting it to be. Continue reading →

By Avinash Mittur

Calling Sodom the German Motorhead is a mistake too many journalists make these days. Motorhead have undergone basically no musical evolution in their thirty odd years as a band, while Sodom have flirted with the likes of black metal, death metal, hardcore punk and of course, classic thrash. Calling Tom Angelripper the German Lemmy would be a bit more accurate though. Why does that analogy work a bit better? Both Lemmy and Angelripper give no fucks. The two men have always done what they want, when they want, and the results have been uniformly stunning for decades. With their new album, Epitome Of Torture, Sodom have refused to buck their admirable trend of writing some of the most brutal thrash metal around. There isn’t anything too different here, and frankly Sodom fans probably wouldn’t want it any other way. Continue reading →