Year: 2020
Total Time: 37:53
Label: AFM Records

I think we all agree that England is the country that actually gave birth to Heavy Metal music. The proofs for that are countless and pointless for this album presentation. On the other hand, in the Thrash Metal area they (English musicians) haven’t done a bad job either with the example of ONSLAUGHT from Bristol who are alive for around 37 years now, well ok, they took a big break in the 1990’s when Thrash Metal was decomposing anyway, but when the new millennium took over, in 2003 they came back with 3 strong albums and now they are offering us their new creation with the more than representative for the times we live title, “Generation Antichrist”.

As a band (right or wrong is another story) they were never included in the elite of the thrash metal scene. Let’s see if this can change now. At first we should definitely mention the departure of the long time singer Sy Keeler and his replacement by Dave Garnett, who started taking part in a few live gigs and now is a permanent member.

So, the album, after a short ”more than common” I’d say introduction start furiously with an (almost)death/thrash Armageddon named “Rise To Power” which, after less than 2 minutes time, just when you start getting into it …stops!… WTF? Why would you do such a thing guys? Is it because it sounds heavier than the rest of the songs? Anyway, the album actually starts with the second track called “Strike Fast Strike Hard” where the “Thrashness” is getting clear and we can start banging. Next is “Bow Down To The Clowns” and to be honest, I thought there was a mistake and some record from TESTAMENT started playing instead. Then we have the self-titled track and “All Seeing Eye” following the same paths while “Addicted To The Smell Of Death” is proving us the hardcore roots of the band before reaching “Empires Fall” and “Religousuicide” where everything is getting a lot ”Slayer-ish”. The album comes to an end with “A Perfect Day To Die” which in my opinion is one of the best songs, really powerful thrash metal with variety in the riffs and great guitar and vocal work.

So, what do we have here as a total? If I had to use just a couple of works to describe it, I would say it’s a quite good album of traditional American Thrash Metal with a modern touch. The influences from bands such as OVERKILL, EXODUS, TESTAMENT (a lot) and SLAYER, are more than visible everywhere. The production is very good and solid, a fact that gives extra points to the overall effort, Dave is doing a great job on vocals, ok, probably he has a poster of Chuck Billy hanging in the studio for inspiration and both drums and guitar work is really high level all around. On the other hand, it’s been 7 years since the previous great album “VI”, resulting on big crazy tours everywhere both for its promotion and also for the 30 years of the super classic “The Force” so I think we are right to have been expecting more things from them. But definitely it’s worthy of a big shot from the fans of band and the Thrash Metal fans everywhere.

Rating:7/10
Editor: Antonis Livanios
Related Link: ONSLAUGHT – Official Page