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HATCHET
Dawn Of The End

The End (2013)
Rating: 7.5/10

Young thrash enthusiasts Hatchet return with Dawn Of The End, the follow-up to their Metal Blade Records debut, Awaiting Evil (2008). The sophomore effort features new members and is backed by new label home The End Records. While that kind of chaos sounds like it could be a career ender early on for many bands, San Francisco’s Hatchet sound refreshed and ready to bring their speedy thrash sound to the masses.

While a lot of the songs will catch your ear quickly, ‘Fall From Grace’ is the standout for me. Its speed riffing and impeccable timing just sound so classic that you can’t ignore it even if you try. The slightly groovy title track is a highlight as well, with its rolling guitars and exactly-at-the-right-time gang vocals.

The six minute epic ‘Silenced By Death’ is like running a marathon at sprint speed. If you try and keep up you’ll end up exhausted by the superb soloing, headbanging swagger and rock solid rhythm section. The wildly melodic guitar work in ‘Welcome To The Plague’ makes it a standout track as well, pulling you in with the masterful lead work and never really letting you go, all based on the strength of the guitars. It really could have stood as an instrumental but the vocals bring some bite to the song that makes it more dynamic.

While some of this comes off as standard fare, a solid three-quarters of it has an undeniable charge of energy to it that makes you forget that you have heard this all before.

The vocals by Julz Ramos on Dawn Of The End really caught me as well, particularly on ‘Dawn Of The End’, ‘Fall From Grace’ and ‘Sinister Thoughts’, because they sound like a young, maddened, Roger Martinez (Vengeance Rising) and not many vocalists remind me of him. They are very unique in the same way that Voivod, Vengeance Rising and Hirax all have unique vocalists; the voice just doesn’t fit on a surface level yet they pound it into your brain until you are convinced that square pegs aren’t so bad inside round holes. In my opinion this is the most interesting part of the new Hatchet dynamic.

The Bay Area’s Hatchet make no bones about who they are or what inspires them. The band wear the Possessed, Death, early Death Angel, and Sadus (the more sinister side of thrash, if you will) sound quite well, intermingling it with hints of mid-career Voivod and just a dash of Testament and early Vengeance Rising. There is a lot to like here if you enjoy the thrash sound. But if that’s not your cup of Jager then you might want to skip this one over.

Mark Fisher

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