ACID AGE
“Perilous Compulsion”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Acid Age are a thrash metal band from Northern Ireland formed in 2013 releasing three E.P.’s and three albums across a decade long career – ‘Perilous Compulsion’ is the bands fourth long player and was released in 2025.

“War-Jazz” – ever heard of it? Well you’re gonna, it’s how Acid Age describe their unique blend of thrash infused with jazz and elements of death and black metal along with a little hardcore punk! In recent years the band has toured with Evile, appeared at the legendary Bloodstock Open Air festival (in the UK), and are now set to unleash their aggressive new album on a worldwide audience – so are you ready for a round of War-Jazz! Don’t really matter if you’re not, ’cause ‘Perilous Compulsion’ is inevitable, the album slow burning into life with ‘Bikini Island’ – the band exploding ferociously into life after a minute or so to shatter the silence and shudder the ground with tremendous force! The raw, chaotic rampage of brutality is all conquering, the howling, growling vocals perfectly suited to this style of abrasive and in your face thrash!

The wide array of metal styles on show collide with a bigger impact than the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs over sixty six million years ago! The band are intense, the album storming on at pace with the blistering ‘State Your Business’ – the level of head bang ability shooting right through the fucking roof as Acid Age hurtle across the land at incredible speed! A speed that’s gonna smash the sound barrier into smithereens – the fierce fury pouring outta Northern Ireland is as unstoppable as night following day, the three piece band delivering an opening brace to blow your fucking socks off! The more menacing style of thrash thunders into view courtesy of the pounding, pulsating ‘Third Eye Locksmith’, the band roaring through the gears after a minute to resume the ground shuddering rampage heard earlier – ‘Third Eye Locksmith’ changing gear more times than a sports car at the endurance focused Le Mans 24 Hour race held annually in France! And for all you fact fans out there, it’s been estimated there’ll be in excess of twenty thousand gear changes per car across the race’s twenty four hour duration!

There’s just no escaping the bands savage onslaught, Acid Age are gonna get you no matter how far, ‘Revenge For Sale’ a violent assault of bone snapping proportions – every listener, fan and follower feeling the effects of the bands intense brutality! The diehard metal fans are loving this, while the more timid among us are cowering in fear, trembling from head to toe with devastating panic attacks – Acid Age delivering an unforgiving, unapologetic array of savagery! And speed too, the band breaking every speed limit known to man as ‘Every Cliche’ hurtles outta the blocks at phenomenal pace, the heads of everyone rocking back and forth at an extremely high rate of knots – so extreme in fact, if Acid Age keep up this pace, heads are liable to be rocked right off their shoulders!

Just how brutal can this band get? And that’s a rhetorical question Acid Age – not a challenge! But still, challenges come in all shapes and sizes, so why not fill your boots while the sun’s shining – ‘Rotten Tooth’ chiming in as the longest song heard so far at seven and a half minutes in length! Slow burning into life, ‘Rotten Tooth’ resumes the bands bustling thrashy nature as Acid Age do deliver more brutality than ever, bludgeoning everyone with absolutely no fucking remorse! And from mid song you’ll find some of the bands dazzling jazz jamming – the fusion of thrash and jazz something that just shouldn’t work! But it does – the band standing head and shoulders over their peers with a truly unique sound! And bringing ‘Perilous Compulsion’ to a close, ‘Hamster Wheel’ is the new longest song on offer at an incredible nine minutes in length, and features every style of music the band have in their vast arsenal! I’m not even gonna begin to list ’em all here, you’re just gonna have to listen and discover every single one for yourselves!

Overall, a mix of thrash, death and black metal, Acid Age add their unique blend to deliver a mesmerising meld of innovation, brutality and ferocity.

TRACKLIST

Bikini Island
State Your Business
Third Eye Locksmith
Revenge For Sale
Every Cliche
Rotten Tooth
Hamster Wheel

https://acidage.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.facebook.com/acidagethrash

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