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CARPET BOMB
Awaken Terror

Self-released (2023)
Rating: 8/10

One of the year’s best album covers goes to Carpet Bomb and their debut full-length outing Awaken Terror. This Phoenix, Arizona-based act may only strike us for 24 minutes, but it’s a bombardment worth every penny if you like snarling thrash that showcases a groove which at times belongs more to the Roots era of Sepultura.

Frontman Nolan Moore’s vocals are volatile snaps, and his guitar is equally as tight and sneering and so riffs are aplenty and tasty in their neck-snapping menace.

Flashes of early Kreator join the mix as this record bombards us with seven hostile tracks, my favourites being the killer groove of ‘Pentagram’, the equally nodding ‘Holy Sacrifice’, and the abrasive cacophony ‘Elijah’s Song’ which rumbles like Slayer at their most foreboding. But throughout this zippy release there is an abundance of streaking thrash outbursts, although melody is never sacrificed.

The likes of ‘Prairie Fire’ and the title cut are razor sharp in execution, with the latter unravelling as a thunderous creation filled with hissing drums from Michael Maier and a belligerent bass from Elijah Kruger.

The fact that Carpet Bomb has managed to strike with such a vicious thrash assault is noteworthy, because in a genre of throwbacks this trio has remained convincing and caustic while boasting an edge so sharp you could slit your throat on it.

Neil Arnold

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