ONSLAUGHT - Killing Peace
February 26, 2007, 17 years ago
(Candlelight)
Onslaught arrived just a bit too late on the scene, the mid’80s already having been thrashed properly by the Big Four, each a band with loads of personality, and then the chops (and recording budgets) to make that personality shine. So there was the UK’s Onslaught, creating serviceable thrash, most noted for their late in career vocalist, Steve Grimmett, previously of Grim Reaper, and their signing to major label London. Steve’s not here, but belter on The Force, Sy Keller, is back, executing an awesome job, injecting just enough singing into his grinding game (there’s a bit of Blitz to the guy, maybe even Ronny Munroe from Metal Church, even Ripper), perfect for the band’s Puppets/Exodus thrash anthems. Lyrically, there’s more than the expected amount of anti-religious railing and wailing, but that fits well with Onslaught’s lean into various Slayer moves. Production’s rockin’ and so are the riffs, both providing, all told, a hard, urban New York thrashiness to the thing, like old Nuclear Assault, but then again, perhaps striking at the mathematical average of what Exodus is about – back then, and for the reformation.
