When Maidenhead founder Zack Roberts reached out to me and asked if I’d review the band’s debut album, Maximum Clonage, I figured, “Why not?” The cover art sure looked cool enough, and upon further investigation, it turns out Roberts’ axe-slinging partner in crime for this affair is Vance Simmons of power metallers Adamantis: A band whom we’ve reviewed and had the pleasure of catching live at last year’s edition of the Blades of Steel Festival in Madison, Wisconsin. As if that wasn’t enough of a lure, we’ve got cameos from not one, but two Megadeth alumni in guitarists Chris Poland and Glen Drover. Color me intrigued!
So what kind of metal does Maidenhead wheel and deal in? From the intro paragraph alone, it can go any way. Well, Maidenhead are a straightaway death/thrash outfit, albeit not in the manner you probably think. Whereas most bands in this vein draw heavily from the subgenre’s scuzzy heyday of the mid to late ’80s, Maidenhead boasts riffing, production, and various other attributes more characteristic of a death/thrash act circa the mid ’00s. In other words, one certainly gets the impression that Roberts and his bandmates cut their teeth watching the Jamey Jasta-hosted incarnation of Headbangers Ball.
The death metal-isms that make up this death/thrash affair teeter on the edge of melodic death metal, particularly evident within the soloing and structure of cuts like the title track, “False Masked Hero” and “Burst Stream of Destruction”. I hate to draw comparisons to Arch Enemy as A. Maidenhead too are a female fronted act, and B. The album as a whole is far more fulfilling than anything the Michael Amott-helmed outfit has released in decades, but I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t hear shades of the early Angela Gossow days. Again, the Y2K death/thrash feel dominates throughout.
On the thrashier side of the spectrum are neck-snappers like “Death March” and “Kill or Be Killed”, both of which boast that “modern thrash” atmosphere and execution, so to speak. Think along the lines of ’00s Kreator, Destruction, Exodus, and so forth. I’ll be the first to acknowledge the irony of branding a sound that came to fruition 20+ years ago as “modern”, but I digress. For the most part, Maidenhead has a rock solid grip on this ethos, barraging the listener with violent riffs, skull-shattering rhythms, and occasional flashes of technicality à la Spiritual Healing era Death (i.e. “Magia Obscura”). Put all these characteristics together, and you’ve got one lethal affair.
Maidenhead are a band one could easily imagine being on a Metal Maniacs-sponsored package consisting of Unearth, 3 Inches of Blood, and the Rob Dukes-fronted Exodus circa 20 years ago. With aughts nostalgia at an all time high (Hilary Duff is an arena act again?!), Maximum Clonage is the ideal album to scratch that itch, while simultaneously giving us a glimpse of a rising band who’s young, hungry, and has a lot to say. I look forward to seeing how this band zeroes in on the qualities that made this album so ruthless even further on future releases.
7 out of 10
Label: Independent
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Skeletonwitch, Kreator, Arch Enemy
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