SFD - The Complete Works (CD Review)

Daryl Taveira (Bass)
Grant McKinnon (Drums)
Paul Giltrow (Guitar)
Jax Murray (Guitar)
Chris Robson (Vocals)

S.F.D. were an Australian Thrash Metal band active from 1991-1993.
This is a 2-CD set bringing together all their demos and releases, being hailed as something of a "legend" creaing music in the classic thrash of Bay Area in parts, old Teutonic thrash, as well as the more technical kind such as CORONER's style of thrash.
Did a bit of research on them, well attempted to, couldnt find anything apart from a few pics of the demos and a you tube video, not even a picture of the band and the record company didnt have one either, also they were unsigned, not quite sure that the term "Legend" is going to very relevant for a band who i'm guessing did little outside their local area.

So hitting play on disc one and the first couple of songs are pretty rough, when track 3 'The Saviour' starts though we get some intresting music, starting with some keyboards which then moves into some nice well played melodic thrash that builds layer upon layer until bursting into life and a full on assault.

As the disc moves on we get a mixture of old school thrash, some silly and pointless instrumentals and some rough sounding songs, seems there is two styles here, on the one hand we have well thought out songs with melody and agression and some plain noisey ones with rough vocals.

As for Disc 2, you can hear the progression in the bands sound as they try new ideas in an attempt to move forward, more technical playing and some very impressive bass playing at times, the vocals continued more on the harsh side.

So an intresting collection, one for fans of the genre and it's history, but hardly "legendary".

Rating 7/10
For fans of: Exodus, Testament, Dark Angel, Metallica, Slayer

Cyrence - The Hospital EP (CD Review)

01.A New Begininng
02.Dystopia
03.This Life
04.The Hospital
05.I Won't Fall
06.You Kill Me
07.Purity Control


Tim Grathwohl (Vocals/Guitar)
Dominic Millett (Guitar)
Chris Hammer (Bass)
Thomas Goldberg (Drums)

Started in 2006 as a solo project of Tim Grathwohl (Vocals and Guitar, Ex-ONE MORE DAY/Ex-GATECRUSHER). In early 2009 they became a full band, featuring bassist Sebastian Moser of SHAPESHIFT/CYNICISM and Chris Boenisch on drums. In late 2009, drumming duties were handed over to Lenz Scharf (SICK SOUL/Ex- A-RECORDZ/Ex-GATECRUSHER).

With Artur Vladinovskij on Lead Guitar, the line-up was complete from late 2009 until April 2010.
Due to conflicting schedules, Artur left and was replaced by Dominic Millett in May 2010. Unfortunately, Basti and Lenz decided to leave the Band in June 2011, again because of conflicting schedules. Luckily, Thomas Goldberg, former drummer of DEATHFEAR, joined in October 2011. In March 2012 finally they found the right person to fill the gap Basti left behind, as Chris Hammer (Ex-KNOW YOUR FOE/AS MENTIONED BELOW) joined the band as their permanent Bassist.

'Dystopia' starts after another fucking intro to an ep/album!
What we get is a very mature sounding melodic thrash metal influenced sound, vocals sung properly (no grunts and growls), solid drumming and endless riffs.

Next few tracks do exactly the same a precision take on the genre faultless in its delivery with a lavish sound production.

'I Wont Fall' is a seven minute mini-masterpiece starts slowly and just builds layer upon layer, highly rhythmic drum patterns blended with clean chord structures, then some timing changes to slow things down before a new rhythm starts, stop/start drum and vocal keeps things intresting, then full on thrash assault time!

Rating 9/10
For fans of: Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus, Evile, Kemakil

Dark Void - Release The Kraken EP (CD Review)

01.The Awakening
02.Nameless
03.100 Years
04.Release The Kraken
05.Anger Within
06.Near Death


Philippos Chrysostomou (Vocals)
Andreas Tryfonos (Guitar)
Trifun Moskalj (Guitar)
Christos Papadopoulos (Bass)
Panayiotis Soteriou (Drums)

Dark Void were formed by Andreas, Christos, Giorgos Hajistilis and Panayiotis late summer of 2013. They started playing mostly covers but soon started on original songs.

Late spring of 2014 Hajistillis decides to leave the band fot personal reason but he still remains a very good friend to dark void! the band at that time decided that if they wanted to rise above all the other bands they needed a singer, and thats were Philipos came in and finally Trifun came to fill in for the 2nd guitar.


Ignoring the pointless 2 minute opening sound effects and a bit of acoustic guitar, yep another band another intro as a seperate track as opposed to simply placing it at the beginning of the main song, which after nearly 12 seconds appears to start exactly where the other one ended.

Okay so rant over and on to 'Nameless', from its distortion opening it then hammers it way through the speakers for some full on thrash metal, no messing around here, ahh well thats what i thought until it went all "symphonic" for a second with keyboards??? then seems to move more into black metal timings and more of that keyboard, and no vocals so what is this "Intro" part 2???

Finally a song! and '100 Years' sounds the part musically, but the vocals need some work and why throw in death metal backing growls where they are not needed or fit?

'Release The Kraken', well this one is worthy of all praise because it samples Eric Cartman from the Cthulhu episodes.The music really does fit more with melodic death metal than out and out thrash, but it is a seriously good and heavy track, very drum driven.

Up next is 'Anger Within' and the first song that really ticks most of the thrash metal boxes, though i still think the vocals are to harsh.

The last track 'Near Death' starts with some pounding basswork followed by furious drumming, there is a slight effect on the vocal which helps it along, slightly reminiscent of early metallica, but dispite that, still really kicks ass!
Some brilliant guitarwork in here as well.

Rating 8/10
For fans of: Tempestora, Breathless, Reaping Havoc, Savage Messiah

Hamerex - The Last Ride EP (CD Review)

01.Calm Before The Storm/Natures Wrath
02.Ride On Ruin
03.Reign Of Fire
04.Apophis


Steve Blower (Guitar/Vocals)
Andy Firth (Guitar)
Simon Brooks (Bass)
Darren Kelsall (Drums)

The latest offering from the Wakefield band formed in august 2004 who have so far notched up 4 demos, 2 ep's and two albums; 'Rites Of Passage' which got a 9 out of 10 from me in september 2011 (though not actually released till feb 2012) and IX in August 2013 which got a 10 out of 10.
Now with a new bassist Simon Brooks and mainman Steve Blower handling the vocals after the departure of singer Chris Moules they are back with a brand new ep, cant wait to hit play!

Starting with an 8 minute melodic thrash/power metal epic ;'Calm Before The Storm/Natures Wrath', first thing to really notice here is the amazing vocal range of Steve Blower, real power part Bruce Dickinson, part Niklas Isfeldt.
From the melodic opening of gentle guitar it moves into a clever mix of Thrash and Power metal, switching pace and timings to perfection, add to this some great backing vocals and the love of a Maidenesque riff and a blasting solo, and this is just track 1 !

'Ride On Ruin' is much shorter, this one is pretty straight forward, driven as it is by some excellent pedal work, it's one of those heads down no noncence rockers.

Up next another 7 minutes of metal with 'Reign Of Fire', ahh but wait this one gets dangerously close to a ballad, one helluva passionate vocal full of power, hits the high notes and then oh yes ballad nightmare overted and the band kick in with some punchy riffs.
Overall a much slower paced song, love the dark guitar riff that breaks up the song to allow the vocal to fill the speakers.

'Apophis' little guitar intro then into another mid paced thrash piece, really nasty sounding riff powers through, more superb vocals reign out, then that killer riff returns, slow and pounding, just waiting for a screaming solo and i am not let down, it comes and it is good.
Just to nail the point home the songs ends on some full on hi-speed thrash.

Strikes me that this band just want to keep pushing forward and each time they do they produce something worth listening to time and again.

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Iron Maiden, Helloween, Metallica