01. Intro
02. Chaos Anatomy
03. Thrash and Kill
04. Moshpirit
05. Thrashing your Brain
06. New Born War
07. Better you Run
08. Psycho-Crime
09. I Hate you
10. Never Surrender
11. Few Seconds of Madness
Comment:
Astonishing 1st album by this raging Thrash Metal band hailing from Spain. Awesome production and cover art by Ed Rpka which will please the ears of every fan of bands like EXODUS, VIO-LENCE, SLAYER, ANTHRAX, ONSLAUGHT... Thrash til death!!
Décidemment le vague de revival thrash qui s’abat sur la sphère métallique depuis maintenant quelques années n’est pas prête de s’arrêter. En effet, avec l’émergence et le succès de formations telles que les géniaux Municipal Waste, les alcooliques de Gama Bomb ou encore les survoltés Bonded By Blood, le thrash metal se découvre une seconde jeunesse. Et tout naturellement, un bon nombre de jeunes groupes suivent le sillage des groups précités, et ce avec plus ou moins de réussite. Ainsi donc les Etats Unis, l’Angleterre, l’Amérique du Sud ou encore les pays d’Europe centrale accouchent sans arrêt de nouveaux rejetons avides de redorer la bannière de la musique qui leur est si chère. Cependant je vais vous parler ici d’un tout jeune combo venant d’Espagne, chose assez rare pour être signalé.
Agression donc, qui voit le jour à Barcelone, est la réunion de quatre jeunes fans de thrash, Pol Luengo à la guitare et au chant, Oscar Reka à la guitare, Sergio Soto à la basse et Sergio Garcia à la batterie. Bien que formé en 2005, nos cinq lascars sortent leur premier ep seulement en 2008, intitulé Thrashing Your Brain. Trois plus tard sort enfin le premier full lenght de la bande, Moshpirit, sous la houlette du prestigieux label Xtreem Music.
Orné d’une pochette plus que conventionnelle dans le milieu et d’un nom évocateur au possible, les secrets n’ont que peu de place quant au style pratiqué par nos quatre latinos. Allez, je vous le donne dans le mille, un revival thrash explosif reposant sur une avalanche de riffs speeds et entrainants, typiques du style, des paroles faisant les louanges du chaos et de la folie et tout cela couplés à une ambiance résolument fêtarde malgré des textes peu réjouissants. Et vous me rétorquerez surement « Ouais, bof, comme d’hab’ quoi ! ». Il serait tentant de réagir ainsi certes, mais laissez moi ces quelques lignes pour tenter de vous convaincre de l’intérêt de cette galette.
Ici, pas de castagnettes, d’hymnes de torero et de sangria … Non, seulement des guitares incisives, de l’énergie à en revendre, des paroles peu encourageantes quant au futur de notre monde et de la sueur ! Si vous voulez la petite liste des influences, je dirais Exodus et la Bay Area en général, quelques touches de thrash teuton (la patte de Destruction n’est parfois pas si loin), tout en restant assez proche de tout ce qui se fait actuellement dans le milieu du revival. Je ne m’engagerais pas dans un descriptif titre par titre de l’album étant donné que les morceaux ne se différencient que très peu les uns des autres. Tous les morceaux sont résolument rapides et agressifs, regorgeant d’énergie et de puissance, principalement grâce aux deux guitares, délivrant sans arrêt riffs entrainants et survoltés, sauf quand ces dernières s’engagent dans des solis ne rajoutant que plus de folie à la recette comme sur Chaos Anatomy, New Born War ou encore sur le titre éponyme. De très courts temps morts sont à extraire de l’opus, à l’image du début de Thrashing Your Brain (morceau extrait de l’ep précédent) ou encore de l’intro acoustique de Never Surrender qu’Iron Maiden n’aurait certainement pas renié. Il faut également rajouter la présence au sein de chaque morceau d’un refrain, accrocheur et facilement mémorisable, accentuant l’impact des compositions et l’énergie déployée.
Vous l’aurez donc compris, l’ensemble est d’un dynamisme impressionnant, résonnant comme un véritable appel au décrochage de nuque, à l’instar de morceaux comme Thrash and Kill ou Chaos Anatomy. Le tout est accompagné par la voix de Pol Luengo, rappelant étrangement celle du vocaliste de leurs compatriotes ricains de Bonded By Blood. Une voix agressive et aigue donc, mais qui n’oublie pas d’être parfois mélodique comme sur Better You Run.
Un mot désormais sur la production. Et bien je dirais simplement qu’elle contribue en grande partie au dynamisme et à la folie de l’album, en donnant aux guitares cette sensation de mur de son, clair, rapide et écrasant, faisait la grande force de cet album.
Malheureusement le manque de personnalité et de variations au niveau des compositions de ce Moshpirit fera de ce premier opus des espagnols un énième bon album de revival, noyé dans la masse de la surproduction actuelle au sein d’une scène en pleine explosion. Effectivement la recette est plus que classique et surexploitée, et même si la qualité du riffing et l’énergie déployée est au rendez vous, cela ne suffit pas à s’extraire de la concurrence. Il n’en reste pas moins un bon album, plein de fougue et de promesses pour l’avenir. Pour ce qui est d’aujourd’hui, cet album ravira tous les fans de bon vieux thrash explosif désireux de faire la fête et de se détruire quelques cervicales en sirotant une (?!), plusieures pintes de bière ! Et puis de toute façon, depuis quand l’originalité est le principal du revival thrash ?!
Spain’s Aggression unleash their second album ‘Viocracy’, my immediate impression are that of a band delivering technical thrash, a little progressive, a little more out of the box, they gain plus points because they are not jumping on the bandwagon of every thrash-styled band that comes out of late. Vocally, I am reminded of the melodic, almost singing style of Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda and Heathen’s David White’s higher register but musically, it’s anything in between Coroner and perhaps some bands like Watchtower. That said, they are not copycats, Aggression are entertaining and influences stretch as far as a cover of Rush’s instrumental piece ‘YYZ’.
If you want entertainment, this album is more the musically minded amongst you, there are little moments to mosh and headbang, these are disrupted by often disjointed time changes, a trait of technical thrash metal as it’s called. With that in mind, I am surprised that the album still manages to flow well, a mark of good arrangements, but some of you will get frustrated by it I am sure. To ease some of these tendencies, check out ‘Human Nature’, this is much more down to earth and develops more of a groove to it, something to sink your teeth into I guess, musically it is still challenging (by that I mean technicality levels are high), the overall feel is more in tune with most ragers in the pit, some of the riffing reminds me of some Megadeth, the acoustic start to the track also builds momentum up rather nicely. In summary, this is US style thrash with added levels of musicianship notable of the European bands of the late 1980’s. Quite a cool mix in all honesty. Further tracks that tickle your fancy include ‘Chemical Slavery’, almost a John Connelly vocal here, over the top riffing and time signature changes with occasional groove.
Aggression make thrash interesting, I would award another half point if I was able too, but on the whole this is a cool release, more for a musically minded person than the average raging thrash-a-holic, but, arrangements are entertaining, interesting and no one can deny their musical ability, but perhaps some restraint in the song structures would benefit the band but I take my hat off to them for being different and musically overflowing with ideas and talent.
While many people predicted that the new wave of thrash wouldn’t last that long, it is still going strong and plenty of new bands are joining the scene every month. One of the relatively newer ones to come across my desk is Aggression, a thrash band from Spain that formed in 2005 and signed a deal with Xtreem Music last year. On their debut album MoshPirit the band plays your standard fast paced/mid-tempo thrash that is very riff oriented but unlike many of their peers they actually do it well enough to make an impression on listeners.
They may be from Spain, but Aggression seems to have taken more influence from American thrash bands than European ones. Many of the tracks on MoshPirit have a Bay Area sound as the riffs have that same tone and style to them. However, despite the fact that Aggression has a bit of a retro feel to their material this doesn’t mean that they are simply ripping off those that came before them. The instrumentalists do have quite a bit of technical ability and have written some cool riffs that have just the right balance of heaviness and melody. Things do get a little less interesting when the band transitions into slower moments though, as the instrumentals aren’t able to maintain the same intensity and variety when this happens. This is definitely something that should be addressed in the future, but it doesn’t hold the album back all that much.
Singer Pol Luengo may be a little too close to the thrash stereotypes for some people, but his vocals do fit the instrumentals well and do add an extra layer of energy to the band’s music. Luengo is sure to remind listeners of several of the prominent Bay Area thrash vocalists, but it’s hard to pinpoint one that he sounds exactly like as his voice is more of a mixture of several singers than one in particular. But what does bother me is the lyrical content and song titles, which seem to cling to the tried and true themes that the genre has discussed for years now. I would like to see the group come up with some ideas that don’t seem so generic as this could help them become more distinguishable in the years to come.
MoshPirit may not be the best thrash album to come out in the past year or two, but it is one of the better efforts to come out from a new thrash band. The riffs are impressive and the group has been able to live up to many of their inspirations, but doesn’t quite stand out just yet. However, they’re at a much higher level than other newcomers to the genre and have the potential to become one of the noteworthy acts if they continue to fine tune their material in the future.
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