RSS Feed


SPYDOR
Spydor

German Democratic Recordings (2024)
Rating: 7/10

Forget the new Kerry King album (From Hell I Rise), if you want fully charged speeding Slayer-style thrash then latch onto this debut full-length blast from German band Spydor. Arguably one of the most intense thrash albums I’ve heard for a while, this ten-track platter rams its songs home as if they were being fired from a machine gun.

There’s quite a lot of experience here from the quartet of Eric Paschold (vocals and bass), Mario Wiefel (guitar), Bertram Tischendorf (guitar) and Pierre Krüger (drums), who have all been together since 2011. In 2015 Spydor issued an overlooked debut EP entitled Predator. I’m not sure where the guys have been since then but this self-titled album matches anything latter day Slayer put out. In fact, some of the material here, although very Slayer-like, is better than a majority of tracks the Los Angeles titans put out on albums like God Hates Us All (2001).

‘The Fallen One’ is somewhat doomy, sounding initially like something off Slayer’s classic 1988 album South Of Heaven. ‘Praise The Sword’, with its punky hardcore kick, also morphs into Slayer. In fact, nigh on every song here can’t help but nod to Tom Araya and company, especially in the vocal tirades.

A majority of the cuts are fast, or by the very least end up rather rapid, but if you delve deep enough there are tweaks of variation such as with the melodies of ‘Hellraiser’ which has a far more traditional metal style. This is still a very Slayer-ised album, but one that I enjoyed immensely.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share