VIO-LENCE
“Let The World Burn”
E.P. Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Vio-Lence are a thrash metal band from the USA formed in 1985, who released three albums – ‘Eternal Nightmare’ (1988), ‘Oppressing The Masses’ (1990), and ‘Nothing To Gain’ (1993) – before splitting up later that same year. The band were instrumental in refining the Bay Area thrash metal sound, with their three albums quintessential listening for the thrash metal connoisseur. Vio-Lence have reformed briefly a couple of times over the years, with the reformation in 2019 bearing the most fruit – a string of live shows and a new release, the bands first in almost thirty years!

‘Let The World Burn’ E.P. – released in 2022 – is five fast and furious songs that capture the bands classic (early days) sound. Three fifths of the line-up from the bands 1988 debut – guitarist Phil Demmel, vocalist Sean Killian, and drummer Perry Strickland – are joined on the E.P. by bass player Christian Olde Wolbers (ex Fear Factory), and guitarist Bobby Gustafson (ex Overkill).

As I mentioned earlier, the E.P. is five songs long, and features nothing but blistering thrash metal. Each and every one of the songs on offer are brutally savage, and will bludgeon the hell out of listeners everywhere! ‘Flesh From Bone’ starts the avalanche of brutality, cascading a devastating downfall of bone crunching riffs. The thunderous cacophony of thrash is fierce and fiery, with an anger driven vocal performance that may just tear your flesh from your bones! The pace accelerates to a phenomenal velocity with the scorching ‘Screaming Always’ – a furious tirade of thrash guaranteed to start deadly walls of death in every mosh pit in every country around the world. Vio-Lence are back after three decades of (virtual) silence, and are roaring louder than ever before. The unrelenting savagery is unstoppable, the band pushing forth with the more mid tempo, grinding riffage of ‘Upon Their Cross’. One of the heaviest thrash metal stomps I’ve heard since the last time I played Slayer, Vio-Lence proceed to up the pace to a deafening crescendo of crunch and punch, only to resume the mid tempo stomp as the song plays out.

Fucking hell this is brutal! The band, not veering from their savage rampage, show more bite than world champion heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson did in 1997, by snarling and sneering their way on with the venomous ‘Gato Negro’. Faster than any of the previous songs, ‘Gato Negro’ will add fuel to the (already) fiery mosh pits – Vio-Lence delivering an enigmatic lesson in violence…in terms of how to perform a destructive style of thrash to decimate every “residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse”! The bands emphatic re-emergence into the worldwide thrash metal scene has been nothing short of incredible – their new E.P. coming to a close with the frenetically fast paced title song ‘Let The World Burn’. Aggression, angst, and attitude are rife throughout ‘Let The World Burn’  – the song and the E.P. – with Vio-Lence hammering home their energetic resurgence with total aplomb.

Overall, a savage battering of brutal thrash metal, Vio-Lence roar through the E.P. at break neck speed.

TRACKLIST

Flesh From Bone
Screaming Always
Upon Their Cross
Gato Negro
Let The World Burn

https://vio-lence.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/vioofficialpage/

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