I hate to use this terminology, but there’s no other way around it: I’m a thrash elitist. Save for maybe the first two Demolition Hammer releases, there are no albums released after the 1980s that will come close to the brilliance of Ride the Lightning, Bonded by Blood, Darkness Descends, Hell Awaits, and so forth. Sure, bands like Testament and Exodus had sporadic mid career masterpieces in The Gathering (1999) and Tempo of the Damned (2004) respectively. And bands like Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, and Power Trip have kept the genre in the public eye, winning over a whole new generation of thrashers. But at the end of the day, you’ll never see another year like 1986.
Now this isn’t to say that every now and then, amidst a sea of bandana wearing posers who care more about getting drunk and scene cred than gnarly riffage and hooks, a band will rise up and attempt to come as close as aesthetically possible to those glory days. Take Critical Defiance for example. If this high speed quartet didn’t have the misfortune of being based in Chile, their name would be on the lips of every headbanger from coast to coast right now. Mind you, I have nothing against Chile or their people, but I can only imagine how much more noticed Critical Defiance would be if they were based here in the States.
With a new and improved lineup in tow, the band has released a brand new album, No Life Forms, and it is nothing short of punishingly brutal. In fact, it follows the Reign in Blood template to a T: 10 songs and a little under 30 minutes of nonstop maniacal thrashing. The blindingly violent speed of “A World Crumbling Apart”, “The Last Crusaders…Bringers of Death!”, and “Dying Breath” recall Dark Angel and Sadus, with perhaps a touch of Beneath the Remains era Sepultura. There is the occasional mosh breakdown thrown in for good measure, but at the end of the day, thrashing is Critical Defiance’s business…and business is good!
The only other major element at play here is the occasional incorporation of tech flourishes, specifically in the guitar work. The six string duo of Javier Salgado and Mauricio Toledo are without a doubt the MVPs of this release, cranking out riff after riff and solo after solo like it’s nothing. Their chemistry shines on intricate cuts like “Edge of Consciousness” and “Kill Them with Kindness”, on which the bizarre outer limits of Voivod and Coroner are channeled to perfection. It all comes together on the closing title track, which sees the speed, mosh, and tech aspects colliding head on at full force.
As I said earlier, there’s nothing that compares to 80s thrash, but I’d be damned if this right here wasn’t the next best thing, or at the very least the best thing thrash has going for it today. Granted, Critical Defiance doesn’t have much competition in that department, but I promise you whatever competition they did have, they just swept under the rug. If you dig your metal fast, ferocious, and tailormade to make your heart explode, crank No Life Forms and crank it loud!
7 out of 10
Label: Unspeakable Axe Records
Genre: Thrash Metal
For fans of: Dark Angel, Sadus, Kreator