Salem City is not a large stylistic departure from this unknown band's 2003 debut Killfukk, but it's still an improvement in several categories, most notably the production and songwriting. The debut was frenetic and fun, but very dry in places, especially the crisp guitar tone. Here on Salem City, it sounds a lot thicker, and the vocals, while still coming off like a mix of Gerre, Schmier and Tom Angelripper, have a lot more depth in the mix. The leads seem better written and the songs seem to care for something other than sheer velocity. Combine these traits with the band's obsession with the color green, and a disturbing yet strangely seductive cover image, and you've got yourselves one of the better Germanic thrash albums from a newer artist in the 21st century.
What really impresses me is just how the band manages to incorporate the melody of traditional metal into the aggression, giving them a mix of old heavy, speed and black metal aesthetics. This is best heard in a track like "Processing Unit", which is filthy and glorious at the same time, or the chorus of "Just One Step"; even the opening volley "The Kill". They also use a loving selection of samples and synthesizer effects to open most of the songs here, which creates this strange nexus of post-apocalyptic cheese which really endears one to the resonant atmosphere of the album. Of course, they still can burst into hellish lightning on the drop of a dime, like "Silent Service" or "Worship Me", of the very Tankard-style of "The Left Eye of God". But they also have some dirty ass tracks here reminiscent of a trashier alternative to Venom mixed with a bit of Sodom. The vocals only add to the variation, like "Luzifer" where some Tom Araya-styled screams are ripped off into the absinthe soaked night of this creation.
If I were to dissect the individual guitar riffs a little more closely, I must admit that they're not always that catchy of their own accord. In fact, without the verdant, unusual allure created by the artwork and atmosphere, the generally manic pacing and the wasteland thrills, this might not hold up so well. But it seems Thargos have something of an anomaly here, an ability rarely found outside something like Deceased, where they manage to channel their influences into something fluid and fun, yet menacing and obscure. I've found that its charms outlast the debut, and honestly most other old school focused thrash albums created by younger artists in the past 10 years. Breasts. Booze. Half-dead, cheap whores rolling about the filth and smog, a skyline of ominous portents and the promise of sweet excess. Salem City indeed.
Verdict: Win [8/10] (in my veins you live forever)
http://thargos.ghul.org/
Killfukk doesn't look like much, and in fact I think it must have one of the ugliest cover arts I've ever seen, but if it's ugliness was meant to help categorize the music, than I think its nuclear facade is only too appropriate. Thargos are another band that follow in the retro thrashing footsteps of the German legends, but while you can most assuredly hear the Sodom and Destruction influence here, I was most impressed that the band were able to capture the unflinching propulsion of Tankard's first three albums, especially in the vocals which sound like a sadistic younger cousin to Gerre, and the steady lightning step of the drumming and crisp riffing patterns.
These Germans do one and only one thing right, just well enough to brand themselves to your memory, and that's by conjuring up fervent storms of thrash so fast that your head would spin off your neck if you tried to visually follow what they were doing. Seriously, the band's joints must have been aching after their rehearsal sessions for this, cuts like "Those I Killed" and "Natural Selection" whipping by with no concern for the speed limit. The guitars are violent and explosive, but also tautly wrought over the tinny drum-storms, and vocalist 'Frontgoat' does a good job in making his vocals atmospheric through reverb and effects, giving this whole album a bizarre, futuristic cold war appeal despite The Morning After-like riffs (albeit with a cleaner production than Tankard had in the 80s). It's crazy fun, though I'd disagree with the notion of "Godz of Black Metal" that this band is really related to that genre, despite the blasting of "Release Him from Earth".
Killfukk holds up for almost 40 minutes, with highlights coming in the brightly rained pain of "Fukking the Hellfukked", the screaming "Subhuman God" or the atmospheric punk charge of "The Antisinner" which is so old school Tankard that I nearly lost a year off my life when hearing it. A few of the songs are less consistent, namely "Black Mass" or the entertainingly titled "Anti Trend Super Mega Blasphemy Song", but they still flow well with their surroundings. The cover of Exodus' "Bonded By Blood" also fits into their modus operandi, and they do a loving, tidy job of it here. A decent hidden bonus closes out the debut which recalls the late 80s period of Destruction, and by this point the listener feels as if he'd been laying on a speedway, now covered in spent fuel and tire treads. I'm not about to give Thargos the highest acclaim for this (I prefer their next album Salem City in quality), but it's certainly likely to appeal to fans of high paced thrash from both sides of the pond: everything I've named dropped earlier, and also the Japanese band Fastkill, or perhaps even Municipal Waste.
Verdict: Win [7/10] (she knows she won't be saved)
http://thargos.ghul.org/
