Thrash is the Western equivalent of pachinko, which, for those who don't know it, is a Japanese pastime where you sit on a tiny stool in front of a vertical pin-ball table that shoots hundreds of balls a minute, alongside scores of other devotees.
The noise, as you can imagine, is overwhelming, but is seen as a great way to escape the stresses and strains of the "lower decibel world," where people can talk to you and bother you with their problems. In the noise there is a kind of silence.
The noise, as you can imagine, is overwhelming, but is seen as a great way to escape the stresses and strains of the "lower decibel world," where people can talk to you and bother you with their problems. In the noise there is a kind of silence.
This was my first reaction to Greek thrash outfit Black Sun Ωmega's debut opus, which surfaced in my mail the other day. The band formed in November 2018 in Patras, Greece, where the foursome no doubt fought off the temptation to lie around in the sun picking olives, and recorded their debut 11-tracker last year.
Each song comes crashing in, tight n' hard n' loud, and more or less does the same as every other song -- although "Whore of Babylon" takes things into doomier rock territory.
Each song comes crashing in, tight n' hard n' loud, and more or less does the same as every other song -- although "Whore of Babylon" takes things into doomier rock territory.
Although trying to blister our eardrums with their relentless fretwork -- evoking in the process the long-suppressed memory of unwashed greasy hair flailing around on tiny stages -- their guitar tones are kind of nice, and the growled vocals strangely smooth, so the music ends up being even more mellow than most thrash. It certainly doesn't back up the scary artwork and apocalyptic song titles, like "World's Demise," "Inner Anti-Christ" and "Flowing Hate."
The searing, sweat-flecked riffs, retro thrash licks, and the relentless attempt to join all the drum beats into one long drum-dash, also tell you that any group of dudes who work off their aggression like this on a regular basis must be some of the most mellow and laid back people on this increasingly insane planet. Real pussycats!
Expect to see them on tour this winter, if the world is still in one piece and not a zombie wasteland where people are shot for not wearing a mask or taking a knee for Black Lives Matter.
Expect to see them on tour this winter, if the world is still in one piece and not a zombie wasteland where people are shot for not wearing a mask or taking a knee for Black Lives Matter.
Colin Liddell
Revenge of Riff Raff
13th July, 2020
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