Toxic Holocaust, Primal Future:2019 - album review
Joel Grind has been releasing music as Toxic Holocaust for 20 years - a chunk of that completely by himself.
The multi-talented musician can thrash his guitar, plunk his bass and thump the drum skins - the early tours of his career he just hired a backing band to help him out on stage.
He sits in a small corner of the music world labelled Crossover Thrash that features metal contemporaries such as Municipal Waste, and his influences include the likes of Discharge and Megadeth.
So you know what you are expecting - ferocious speed, skin shredding riffs and unrelenting, pounding percussion slapping you left, right and centre.
And what makes this a real treat for fans is that he has gone back to his origins in recording solo. For the last few releases whoever was in his backing band at the time joined him in the studio. But this 20th anniversary release has stripped all that back.
There is something celebratory about its atmospherics as a result, particularly when he lets his music swagger on the likes of the appropriately named New World Beyond. Agitated guitars chug along threateningly before spilling over into an engine-like revving for the chorus. Think a biker impatiently sitting at a red light.
The speed is kept up throughout Controlled By Fear. Industrial vibes ebb through the sound as the acid-tinged drumming thumps repeatedly on the inside of your skull.
The opening salvo Chemical Warlords - the kind of name that would entice anyone to join that gang - swirls like the greatest metallers out there. The intro with its frantic and melodic opening ushers in Grind's gravelled vocals to bark over the top.
And truth be told, that's the weak point. While the musical elements are gripping on pretty much every track, Grind's vocal delivery is the soft centre at the middle of it all. His throaty delivery grates a little in many of the verses - especially with each track pushing nearly five minutes.
But don't let that detract too much from explosive moments like Deafened By The Roar. Let those limbs fly wide listening to this one.
Rating: 6/10
Toxic Holocaust plays in support of Municipal Waste alongside Enforcer and SKELETAL REMAINS at Birmingham's The Asylum on December 3
