Since their 2022 reboot, headbangers have welcomed the new and improved speed-thrashing Cruel Force with open arms. Their 2023 comeback album, Dawn of the Axe, kicked ungodly amounts of ass, showing off a whole new side of this beloved cult act. Unlike other bands who pull the “We’re back!” card, CF did not pick up where they left off, It was a gamble that paid big time, not just for the fans, but the band. Yes, in a world full of narrowminded elitists, a title that I certainly plead guilty to, Dawn gave CF license to do virtually whatever the hell they wanted, naysayers be damned. That is exactly where we find them on the much-anticipated follow-up to Dawn, Haneda.
When looking back upon my review of Dawn, I described it as an “invigorating blend of NWOBHM inspired speed and primitive thrash that sounds straight out of 1985”. In the case of Haneda, the thrashing sounds closer to ’83 or ’84, when speed was morphing into what we know today as thrash. That isn’t to say there aren’t thrashing moments to be found on this album, especially in a historical context. However, aside from “Titan’s Awakening”, there are seldom, if any, explicit mosh breakdowns, nor the usual anger one would expect from an archetypal thrash release (i.e. One of those cornerstones released from ’86 onwards). No, Haneda owes more to the likes of Exciter, Agent Steel, and perhaps most prominently, Power and Pain era Whiplash.
Yes maniacs, if you like your metal fast, frenetic, and furious (Had to add a third descriptor to avoid legal action from one Mr. Vin Diesel), Cruel Force have you covered. Following a grandiose instrumental intro in “The Cross”, the aptly titled “Whips-A-Swinging” comes, you guessed it, swinging in, putting the pedal to the metal at 666 M.P.H. Its fusion of ripping riffs, early extreme metal toms (the Seven Churches ones), and take no prisoners attack is guaranteed to get your heart leaping from its chest, as well ragers like “Crystal Skull” and “Warlords”. What sets Cruel Force apart from the rest of the pack, however, is an emphasis on what I like to call exotic musicianship.
When listening to the six-string mechanics of guitarist Slaughter, or the inner mechanisms of the band as a whole, one can’t deny the influence of acts like Rainbow, Iron Maiden, and Uli Jon Roth era Scorpions. Hell, there’s a passage in “Whips” that sounds lifted straight out of “The Sails of Charon”, and I love it! Other songs boasting this “trad metal turned to 78 RPM” vibe are “Savage Gods” and the instrumental “Crystal Skull”. “Black Talon” is, for all purposes, the lost twin of Slayer’s “Die by the Sword”, while the aforementioned “Titan’s Awakening” lies closest to textbook thrash in terms of template. The nearly 10 minute closing title track brings it all together gloriously, the speed, thrash, and NWOBHM flashes, in a grand finale conjured from a land most faraway.
With whips-a-swinging and a force oh so cruel, Cruel Force have done it yet again, effortlessly conjuring a 9 song slab of earthshattering, mind-splattering old school steel at the speed of light. In their past blackened thrash life, the band only made it to album #2 before calling it a day in 2012. Let’s hope in this latest iteration, Cruel Force sticks around long enough to pull off a hat trick. Something tells me they have it in them, and that something is the mighty Haneda.
8 out of 10
Label: High Roller Records
Genre: Speed/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Vulture, Whiplash, Exciter