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NOISEM
Agony Defined

A389 Recordings (2013)
Rating: 8/10

I’ll never forget the day I heard a record called The Ultra-Violence (1987) by San Francisco Bay Area thrashers Death Angel. It was an album that not only sounded so mature, but it pummelled the competition with its rawness and speed. I then recall when I discovered that the band was mostly made up of teenagers. Surely not, I thought. There must’ve been some mistake? But no, Death Angel were the new kids on the block showing the men how thrash should be played.

Now, nearly three decades after that astonishing debut album, we have Noisem, a bunch of Baltimore, Maryland-based death-thrashers barely out of school and cracking heads like it was the 80s.

I know very little about these guys and I’m more overjoyed for it, at once being thrown across the room by that old school feel of album opener ‘Voices In The Morgue’, which has the fiendish quality of death-thrashers Possessed combined with the staggering arrogance of Florida death-mongers Morbid Angel.

Noisem sound as if they’ve been around for years. But no, Agony Defined is their fresh-faced nine-track debut opus that is surely set to send pulses racing. Originally formed in 2008, Noisem began life as Necropsy and consist of five young upstarts, namely, vocalist Tyler Carnes, bassist Yago Venturo, drummer Harley Phillips and the guitar duo of Travis Stone and Sebastian Phillips, who I’m guessing is the brother of Harley.

The noise they make will surely appeal to anyone seeking that old school sound which, on this occasion, is played exactly right, the band rattling out some truly formidable compositions that not once resort to mid-paced mediocrity.

The aforementioned opener and the even more frenetic follower, ‘Birthing The Bestial’ are truly astounding death / thrash metal workouts featuring blazing solos and ear-splitting riffage coupled with hyper drums and pounding bass. Sure, it’s not the most original thing I’ve heard, but somehow it still remains refreshing, existing simply as a battering ram of a beast that never lets for its duration. Tyler Carnes’ vocals are very much of the David Vincent (Morbid Angel) and Jeff Becerra (Possessed) mould – not guttural, but more so rasps of anguish amidst those punching riffs and break-neck drums.

‘Mortuary’ boasts a sinister chug which sounds like a doomier Slayer, but again, Noisem aren’t interested in shifting between moods, and seconds in they remove the eyes from the sockets and drive nails into the ears with those frantic structures and evil dynamics.

‘Rotten Remains’, ‘Severed’, ‘Split From The Inside Out’ and ‘Chronic Dementia’ all follow suit in similar deathly fashion, bringing to mind the grotesque strains of early Death and Obituary. The closing title track, meanwhile, showcases some of Harley Phillips’ best drumming techniques as he pounds away as if his life depended on it.

Noisem may not have the greatest band name, but they make up for this with their punishing style of death / thrash which will no doubt have old school metallers salivating in wonder. Finally here’s a band that has openly revisited the old school for inspiration, but also managed to instil the fresh-faced brutality of those classic bands into their sound.

There’s nothing groundbreaking on offer here, but what Noisem have done is remind us what we’ve missed and dragged the 80s death / thrash metal scene screaming from its coffin and into the modern climate. Goodness knows what these guys are capable of!

Neil Arnold

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