Hurtlocker and Mastery…

I had been seeing a number of reviews and ads touting the thrashiness of "Fear in a Handful of Dust" that were making me curious, even though Hurtlocker's name and logo throw up some red flags on my radar (I guess the name does have a ring to it, I'll give 'em that), but I must admit, the claims are accurate: This is some damn good thrash metal.

Chicago had some great thrash bands during the 80's/early-90's, and I'd be surprised if Hurtlocker didn't grow up on 'em, because, despite boasting an understandably more modern tinge, the band's riffs and writing tactics certainly draw inspiration from decades past, and the end result sort of reminds me of Epidemic with dashes of Stampin' Ground (once they started to go total thrash) and minor little leanings towards death metal here and there (in the best possible way—think hints of Malevolent Creation's "Retribution", for example). There's somewhat more of a sneer to the vocals than the old days, but they definitely don't have that forced contemporary edge that I dislike so much, so I'm in full support of the performance. And this is some memorable songwriting too, which is not an easy task when it comes to shooting for an old school thrash vibe. But they tend to stick with two- to three-minute tracks chock full of meaty picking patterns and well executed tempo variations, so I'm sold. I do find myself wishing the recording was a little more fluid (those drums are testing my "clicky" limits), but I can absolutely live with it. Just imagine, though, if these songs had the oomph of, say, The Haunted's first record or something like that... the results would be truly fucking badass.

How a band like this ends up on Napalm Records is beyond me, as this is without a doubt one of the only good releases on the label that I can think of, and I'm guessing these cats are also among the manliest bands on a label that has always struck me as being dominated by silly "dramatic" metal bands with penchants for keyboards and pomp. But check this shit out, fans of thrash's heyday should certainly approve:

Hurtlocker "Absolution"
Hurtlocker "Already Inside"

Hurtlocker's one of the better thrash bands I've heard in recent years, so if you dig the tunes, pick up a copy of the CD for yourself and spread the word. These guys are definitely getting out there, but I'd say they're still facing somewhat of an uphill battle in terms of really reaching the audience that I think will appreciate them the most. This is damn good stuff:

@ The End Records