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When you even
mention the words Thrash Metal to anyone not familiar with the genre, you
will get the reply too fast too noisy from many quarters, which is
sometimes the case in that this genre is taken to the extreme by many
bands. But the true roots of all Thrash Metal bands leads back to
the San Francisco Bay Area of the 1980’s when the likes of Slayer and of
course Metallica took the world by storm. While all eyes were on
Hollywood Strip these bands took up the guitars and tore a strip (pardon
the pun) of these lipstick and big hair bands and unleashed a sound that
would change a generation with its pounding drums and speed driven
guitars.
These days the
Thrash Metal genre has seen its fair share of so called young pretenders
trying to relive those heady days of heads down metal. Now out of
Styria Austria come a band who are about to take over the mantle of Thrash
Metal's new saviours, as Wolfpack Unleashed bring the Bay Area sound
kicking and screaming in to 2007 with superb melodies and hardened melodic
riffs that will hit you straight between the eyes and leave you hungry for
more.
The album itself
is entitled 'Anthems Of Resistance' and is just that. The band are
turning the tide of Thrash with their use of minor chords and punchy bass
lines wrapped around the riff laden guitars.
Things get
underway with ‘Last Dance Of A Dying King’ and instantly you're drawn back
to those 80’s metal days of hair thrashing and head-banging that made this
genre so popular, with the guitars of Wops Koch and Karl Preiniger
towering over the back beat of Daniel Haberl and the power bass lines of
Gunther Wirth, who also provides the Hetfield style vocals that accompany
this album.
The album
continues its relentless assault with ‘Religion of Control’, another hook
filled masterpiece that is very early Metallica (think Master of Puppets
album). The same relentless no holds barred approach continues
throughout the album with the likes of the tenacious ‘Next Victim’ with
its darkened vocals, the double kick assault of ‘Disgraced Erased’ and
speed induced guitar work on ‘Warzone’, all standout tracks that will have
heads bobbing as Wolfpack Unleashed set their case to make Thrash Metal
once again the genre of choice for hardened metalheads. |
