Shrapnel - Hellbound

I had totally expected to hear mediocre hardcore when I sat down to listen to Shrapnel's Hellbound, as their moniker and the Rottweiler on their cover seemed like bad hardcore clichés. But as it turns out, they deploy thrash as their primary means of destruction. It also turns out that everything they do is explosive, sharp and jagged. So, hardcore clichés aside, "Shrapnel" fits.

I've already written about how a lot of thrash has no energy these days (it's the first thing to peeve me right the fuck off when I hear new revivalists). Bands not only recycle old thoughts, but they manage to make the originals, which once were so aggressive and vibrant, sound completely stale. It's a style that has seriously started to sound every bit as old as it is. But Shrapnel is a breath of fresh air, as they leave broken strings and melted picks in their wake. They're not interested in where thrash has went over the last 30 years nor do they care to tweak the formula even the littlest bit. They simply blast balls-out tunes that take you right back to thrash's punk-inspired ground zero. Their objective is speed. Their manifesto is, "Drink. War. Thrash." And their results are devastating.

Shrapnel inspires thoughts of Vio-Lence, Sodom, Kreator, Nuclear Assault, et al., as they play as though thrash never evoled past 1983. Riffs scrape, buck and dive off of punk-charged rhythms with grenades of groove lobbed in on occasion. The rhythm section consistently teeters on total self-destruction while the iron oxidized bark of Louis "Disaster" Rando extends the rawness of the material to the human voice. Solos are not composed, musical thoughts, but rather explosive, dirty bombs of tangled melody. And all of it will blast your sorry ass off the couch and instigate a pit between you and your furniture - "Hellgrinder" to "Six Pack Attack" is a ripping vortex of thrash fury.

But "Hellgrinder" to "Six Pack Attack" excludes the last song on the album. "The Power Is Mine" is an unfortunate miss and its inclusion is a total head scratcher as it completely strays from the strengths of the band: speed and aggression. It's way too long, overly redundant and its mid-paced trot withers away all of the album's energetic propulsion ("I Am the Hell" has the same problems to a lesser extent). To make things worse is that it's your last impression of the album, and it's a shitty one. If I had to guess - and I don't, but I will - I'd say the song was tacked on to try and push the album over 30 minutes. I wish it wasn't.

Hellbound is an otherwise resounding success. It will scratch the hell out of whatever thrash itch you may have. I just hope Shrapnel doesn't take another decade to release the follow-up.

June 26, 2010

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