CROSSFIRE
“Switch To Reset”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Crossfire are a thrash metal band from the Republic Of Ireland formed in 2012, releasing their debut E.P. ‘Bound In Skin’ in 2018, and debut full length album ‘Switch To Reset’ in 2023…

…featuring nine neck breaking bone snapping skull shattering thrash metal anthems across a blistering one hour of incredible power! The four piece from Dublin are in devastating form, bludgeoning listeners with a brutal array of old school savagery harking back to thrash metals golden era during the mid to late eighties – just imagine the Big 4 and Teutonic Four making music as a single entity! And that my friends, is the Crossfire sound – a sound that wastes no time in setting light to the airways, ‘Switch To Reset’ opening with the title song ‘Switch To Reset’. A first minute tension fuelled intro gives way to scorching pace as the band light the touch paper and hurtle on at full tilt – the glorious sound of eighties thrash metal filling the air! It may be forty years since thrash exploded onto the world scene, but by crikey it’s as fucking good as it’s ever been – Crossfire proudly flying the thrash metal flag. ‘Switch To Reset’ (the song) may be seven and a half minutes long – fairly long for an album opener, but what an impact it makes! The pace is electric, the band sizzling with high energy…

…energy that is carried forth to ‘Book Of The Dead’ – opening with an even greater amount of tension than the previous song, frantically exploding into life with an immense thunder, fire and brimstone attitude. The band are at full ferocity here, devastating the airways with a savage barrage of all out aggression – not to mention the brutality level, cuts and bruises appearing on every listener everywhere! What an opening double from a band very much on fire, Crossfire scorching the Earth as they roar by, leaving only desolation in their wake. The intensity since the album began has been incredible, the band not lifting their foot off the pedal, powering on with ‘Lost All Control’, meandering its way across the entire thrash metal genre, finally settling down in the mighty foot stomping style of thrash – Crossfire bringing elements of black album era Metallica to the fore! But with much more savagery than the American icons – ‘Lost All Control’ shuddering the ground and creating massive earthquakes all over the world!

I just can’t seem to put into words how fucking heavy ‘Switch To Reset’ (the album) has been, crushing everything in sight with incredible force, the album moving swiftly on with the melodic thrasher ‘Who Goes There?’ – the glorious sound of the legendary Bay Area filling the air! And the pace too, simply stunning, Crossfire changing gears to roar off at high velocity, ‘Who Goes There?’ turning in the speediest performance heard on the album so far. And with no end in sight to the pummelling aggression, the band storm on with ‘Coercion’ – the shortest song on offer at just a little over five minutes in length! Yet what it lacks in length it certainly makes up for with immense levels of aggression, brutality and all out speed – the album maintaining the phenomenal intensity it began with. And if you’re looking for a head banging feast, you ain’t gonna go far wrong putting ‘Switch To Reset’ (the album) on the turntable – huh, turntable! There’s a definition of the generation gap right there – it’s no secret I’m old school, growing up during the eighties when I was a teenager, rebelling against everything and everyone, and falling in love with heavy metal! A love that’s as strong now as it’s ever been…

…and with bands such as Crossfire hitting my sweet spot with multiple eargasms, my love ain’t in danger of dying any time soon! The band remain in devastating form, breaking bones and snapping necks with ‘Turned To Stone’, the energy level rising right off the fucking chart! ‘Turned To Stone’ is actually more “heavy metal” than thrash, straddling the border of the two genres with consummate ease. Fans of thrash and traditional metal are gonna be head banging side by side, the worldwide mosh pits a frenzied pool of metalheads going fucking mental! Mental for a band delivering a terrific tsunami of thrash – and don’t forget, ‘Switch To Reset’ (the album) is the bands debut full length album! Imagine how fucking good their sophomore album’s gonna be – but you can imagine that a little later, for there’s still two songs remaining here! The first ‘Guns For Hire’, maintains the incredible intensity of the album, adopting the mighty foot stomping style of thrash, proceeding to plant one foot firmly on the monitor, perfectly echoing the essence of traditional heavy metal. And then with a scorching change of pace, ‘Guns For Hire’ turns on its heels and races off at high velocity, the bands root thrash metal sound coming to the fore.

What an album ‘Switch To Reset’ has been, clearly one of the years best thrash metal albums, and there’s been quite a few to choose from – Terrifier’s ‘Trample The Weak, Devour The Dead’, Overkill’s ‘Scorched’, Bloodletter’s, ‘A Different Kind Of Hell’, and Burden Of Grief’s ‘Destination Dystopia’ to name just a few! But let’s get right back to Crossfire’s incredible debut, the band delivering a final hurrah to end all final hurrahs with the ten phenomenal minutes plus ‘Prometheus’ – and what can I say? It’s sheer brilliance, everything you’d ever want from ten minutes of thrash is right here – except for the vocals! ‘Prometheus’ is an instrumental, full of atmosphere, menace, power, pace and head bang ability.

Overall, a barnstorming barrage of savage thrash metal, immensely infectious and thoroughly head bang-able.

TRACKLIST

Switch To Reset
Book Of The Dead
Lost All Control
Who Goes There?
Coercion
Turned To Stone
Guns For Hire
Prometheus

https://crossfirethrash.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Crossfirebandthrash

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