Nice. Or maybe you were thinking about the classic Bryan Adams song of the same name? Just what does a title like Summer of ’69 invoke? Maybe your mind raced to some sort of throwback tone stoner rock—nope, sorry. Perhaps the pop art cover took you to a bright, synth-coated land of big choruses and bigger hair? Still wrong, though. Hatchend instead circles about—cobbled of various Swedish extreme acts—waters of punk-loaded, gravel-voiced crossover thrash.
“Few bands in the thrash business have remained as enjoyable through their dips and resurgences as New Jersey’s very own gutter brigade Overkill. And since The Lubricunts dissolved to form that unsung thrash titan, bottom-rumbler D.D. Verni has been pluckin’ low and clangy under scooped riffs and snarled anthems for the better part of forty-four years, equally as integral to the Overkill grime as Bobby Blitz’s trash-tongued antics. So it’s understandable then that Verni’s output, being born of a mind—D.D. Verni performs everything here—that has reveled in riffs with a sticky crunch, has aimed to take a step back to roots, back to rock ‘n’ roll.” Rock in a Jersey place.
The List of Steel is upon you!! Now you will know trve power and glory as Steel Druhm’s Top Ten(ish) unfolds and expands to fill all the metalverse.
Do you even lift, brah? If so, we have the soundtrack to your bumper plate annihilation. Grow or die at the AMG exercise vault.
“The late 90s may have seen Sadus wandering too deep into (then) modern, groovy, and progressive sounds, and the 2006 offering Out for Blood leaning further into weird synth intros, drop-tuned guitars, thrash heresy. But, at the core of their most beloved outings, the backbone of Sadus was always a neck-snapping, zig-zag riffcraft.” Unsung but vicious.
“If you told me back in the 80s that New Jersey’s most pugnacious metal act, Overkill would still be kicking and screaming in 2023, I would have thought your brain was rotten to the core. Yet here we are 38 years after their debut EP and along comes album number 20, Scorched! While I’ve found something to enjoy on every Overkill outing, 2019sThe Wings of War had serious issues with bloat and sometimes underwhelming writing. I harvested the best cuts and moved on, rarely revisiting once my reviewing duties were complete. As a lifelong fan, I certainly came into Scorched hoping for more.” No really, Overkill will never die.
“Wheat dies fast; chaff lives on forever. What that means for thrash, I don’t know, because that genre will relive the good ole days until the barn burns down. I also don’t know what that means for Trastorned. The Chilean quartet have spent 15 years working out the perfect homage to the genre with their debut, Into the Void. It’s mean. It’s fast. It sounds exactly how you want it to sound. But those three points mean little these days, and it will take so much more for these thrashers to survive the thresher.” Harvest tunes.
“The retro metal movement continues unabated, dragging modern metal back to the past (read as: the 70s). New York City’s Tower want their piece of that retro/proto-metal pie, and on sophomore platter Shock to the System, they’re ready to do whatever it takes to get it. Their stock in trade is high-octane, gritty, ballsy metal influenced by 70s rock, 80s traditional metal, and early speed, and folks, these cats are out for blood and treasure.” System upgrade.
“Preconceptions are fun, aren’t they? When I tell you Dystopia A.D. is a 2-man unsigned band from Jersey, or Joisey as it’s colloquially known, you’re already forming a picture in your head. If you’re like me, you’re probably expecting some sort of politically charged thrash, possibly of a crossover or core-related variety. Dystopia is, after all, a word that inherently defines a result of particular forms of governance, and Jersey is known primarily for blue collar thrash, Overkill of course its flag carrier. Combine that with the unsigned 2-man band and the picture seems complete. Except it’s utterly, utterly wrong.” Garden state fake.
“Ross the Boss is one of those bands I can’t help rooting for, being as it’s the outfit of Ross Friedman, the man behind the guitar on all the classic Manowar albums. Those platters were a huge part of my early metal education and I still cherish them dearly, as all trve metal fans should. Ross’ post-Manowar projects have been somewhat hit or miss, and 2018s By Blood Sworn was very disappointing despite some major league talent coming on board to help out. Because of this, I majorly tempered expectations coming into their 4th album, Born of Fire.” Who’s the Boss?
