Terrifier - Metal or Death EP

It seems like a lot of the bands that are playing 80s style metal, whether it be traditional, doom or thrash get lumped into the whole "retro" category. I think that retro is used to loosely. To me a band is retro if it goes out of it's way to sound like a throwback. Then there are some that are the real deal. British Columbia's Terrifier is that real deal. Actually formed in 2003 under the name of Skull Hammer they changed their name to Terrifier in 2012 and released this three song EP in July of 2013. These guys manage to kick the living shit outta me in just under twelve minutes with their riff laden thrash metal. These guys are no joke, this is head banging, fist banging, moshing thrash metal.

The EP kicks off with the title track and the riff fest begins. The song is fast and well written with a hint of being technical.  The riffs do not let up on this song as the vocals pummel you with their aggression. This reminds me of the 80s. The solos are amazing on this song being very technical. There are a lot of dual harmony leads that add some melody to this aggression. This song is simply a neck breaker. "Infernal Overdrive is another song that just pounds you with riffs and speed. There's some blasts in there that lead to some absolutely godly solos. Some of the riffs actually remind me of early Iced Earth triplets but used sparingly. The assault continues with the third and final song. "Wretched Damnation." This is another speedy thrash number with aggressive riffs and amazing solos. This is thrash done right.

This album is actually well produced with a more classic sound but with enough modern production to not sound dated. You can't go wrong with this band because they know how to write catchy thrash songs that are fuckin' good. I'm waiting to see what this band does next because with the right exposure they could go very far. The only thing wrong with this EP is that there wasn't more of it. This is a band to watch.

9/10

Digital Download Provided by Vlad Promotion