ONSLAUGHT - Live Damnation
September 12, 2009, 14 years ago
(Candlelight)
Audio component of live effort from reunited English thrashers at the ’08 Damnation festival. The eight-song set can also be viewed on a separate DVD. The collection is culled from the reformation studio effort Killing Peace, as well as the best of their ‘80s material: ‘Metal Forces’, ‘Let There Be Death’, ‘Demoniac’ and the lengthy (7:12) set-concluding ‘Power From Hell’. Still nothing from In Search Of Sanity. Opening with Sy Keeler shouting the infamous chorus from ‘Killing Peace’, Onslaught is off. Never realized how much Keeler sounds like Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth (Overkill) on the high notes/screeches. The piston-driven ‘Let There Be Death’ is up next. Little in the way of stage banter - even with no language barrier (fest is held in Leeds, UK) those mid-level festival spots are tight on time, so why waste time gabbing when you could be thrashing? With the similarly short Polish Assault issued just two years ago, not much diversity in the running order; the major difference here is half the material is “new” (while ‘Killing Peace’, ‘Let There Be Death’ and ‘Metal Forces’ are all reprised from the earlier video/CD). Nice soloing to close out ‘Demoniac’ though.
