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PANIKK
Unbearable Conditions

Metal Tank (2013)
Rating: 6.5/10

Who’d have thought it, Slovenia is now giving birth to formulaic thrash bands clearly influenced by the 80s scene. Oh well, I guess it’s the in thing to make a living by trawling through the best, or worst, of 80s thrash and stealing just about every ingredient. Of course, aping Anthrax, Death Angel, Exodus, Nuclear Assault et al, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be as good, but, shock horror, Panikk are one of the better new thrash acts I’ve heard.

Sure, there’s nothing here that separates them from the burgeoning pack – at every turn I’m hearing Death Angel and Anthrax, particularly in the vocal attack of Gašper Flere, who is also responsible alongside Nejc Nardin, for those crunchy Bay Area riffs which sound as if they’ve been plucked straight from those early Exodus albums – but I do like the energy of it all, although too much of this sort of new thrash will have me reaching for the sick bowl.

Album opener ‘Panic Attack’ has touches of Vio-lence, Death Angel and Exodus, complete with those chanted lines and Grega Košmerl’s drums seem to be designed to only ape those 80s style structures. ‘Messiah Of Decay’ is equally unremarkable, as is ‘The Wave Of Death’ and ‘Playground Of Visions’ which give a nod (not sure whether it’s intentional though!) to Municipal Waste who were one of the bands at the forefront of such a thrash resurgence, but thankfully Panikk keep things serious, rarely traipsing into humorous territory.

And this I believe is where Panikk have one over some of the more irritating bands; their ability to thrash hard without resorting to cartoon humour. In the 80s a lot of thrash metal bands were more than happy to inject high levels of humour which seemed to hinder them rather than aid them. But Panikk keep things simple in regards to their structures, combining aggression with melodic leads, with the band shining on instrumental ‘Away From Reality’ and even more so on acoustic passage ‘Revelation Of Truth’.

Panikk will not blow you away, in fact some of you may find American thrash from Slovenia rather irritating, but to be honest I’ve heard far worse. Although there is nothing original about these guys, the serious nature of it all suggests a band that knows their limits, and within that framework are still happy to rock out as hard as they can.

Neil Arnold

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