VARIOUS ARTISTS
Speed Kills VII
Music For Nations (2016)
Rating: 7/10
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In 1985 a heavy metal compilation was released under the name of Speed Kills. I got into heavy metal around 1987 through the strains of Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne etc. But one day I heard a band named Slayer and their 1985 opus Hell Awaits, and everything changed.
I didn’t know that music could be played so fast or sound so evil, and so shortly after buying said album from a friend for the measly price of £2.50 I then stumbled across Speed Kills. I was a teenager, but one terrified by the guttural tones of Celtic Frost, Bulldozer, Voivod, Venom, Possessed and Destruction. I was never the same again.
Compilation albums were a brilliant way of introducing us young metalheads to new, and not-so-new bands. It was also a way of not having to spend all of our pocket money on a band we wasn’t so sure about. And by diving in to such a compilation, it opened up so many doors… but they were often foreboding doors, gateways to hell.
The first five Speed Kills albums are vital landmarks in metal history; they emerged in quick succession and ended in 1990. A sixth instalment would emerge in 1992, but I somehow missed the boat in spite of it containing excellent content. And so it is with great delight that I welcome you to the seventh volume.
Okay, so Daniel P. Carter should be fired for the crap cover artwork, and I wish we’d been treated to a juicy double opus like a few of the latter volumes. I also wish that the album contained tracks by some of the thrash big guns; Destruction, Sodom, Overkill, Death Angel et al are all still going strong and I’m of the opinion that any young kid just getting into metal should learn about the history rather than jumping into the more recent waves. But I guess I have to be grateful that this series has returned, and this time around we get ten tracks by ten bands, all from the UK.
First up is The King Is Blind; Essex-based death thrashers who don’t really bring anything new to the table – but then again I’m just fussy. ‘Throne Of Skulls’ is a frothing track with a rather clean-cut, polished thrashy barrage and deep, sepulchral vocals. But my issue here is that this just sounds like so much stuff that’s been doing the rounds this side of the millennium. It’s catchy and aggressive, but rather generic.
The same could be said for rasping horrors Formicarius. These Londoners play a sneering, yet crisp and atmospheric style of black metal. On ‘Lake Of The Dead’ there’s a tinkle of keys, but it’s mostly a straight-up, often frosty black metal torrent with the addition of a nice, almost traditional metal melody running through it. The tone of Lord Saunders’ vocals is decipherable, and the band in general steer well clear of the usual mucky, grimy grimness of so many to offer up a decent, polished Gothic strain of extreme metal.
The biggest entry on offer here though is from Acid Reign. These guys were around during the late 80s / early 90s and have featured on the last three volumes of Speed Kills. Their latest offering, ‘Plan Of The Damned’, is a nice, infectious chug-fest of crossover thrash. H’s vocals have never sounded so menacing, and with this track the Yorkshire posse show the kids how it’s done. Indeed, ‘Plan Of The Damned’ takes us back to the late 80s, with the guys showing no signs of rustiness as they plod with utter menace before a zany spell at just over the three-minute mark where all instruments collide into a killer frenzy.
Rather breathless, I dive in again, and this time it’s Amulet. This London bunch formed in 2010 and have been banging heads ever since with their brand of straight-up galloping metal. With ‘Highwayman’ we are treated to a demo version soaked in 80s nostalgia from Jamie Elton’s no frills commands and the twin guitar assault of Marek “Heathen” Steven and Nippy Blackford. It’s straigtht down the line, balls to the wall metal and you can’t fault them for wearing their hearts and influences on their sleeve.
To round off side one, we meet Divine Chaos, a Berkshire-based band who formed in 2006. Having only released one album (2014’s A New Dawn In The Age Of War) I’m rather surprised then that the compilers of this volume plundered its depths for a song which comes in the form of the metallic surge known as ‘Ignorance Everlasting’. In a sense, it’s a thrash-by-number journey featuring salivating vocal spits and nice strains of melody, but there’s nothing here that really jumps out from a whole host of similar sounding bands to have bloated the scene over the last decade or so.
On the flip side we have Akercocke with ‘Inner Sanctum’. The recently reformed veteran extreme metallers bring their usual angular and unusual variety of heavier metal. The barking bellows of Jason Mendonça are complimented by the jarring guitar strains and trundling bass; the result being a full-blown Gothic tirade to welcome the guys back into the fray.
Next up we have Dungeon and ‘Death From Above’, which is wrenched from the London band’s 2016 six-track demo English Hell. The track is a rollicking outburst of standard speed metal in Teutonic vein which harks back to the rusty 80s, and it’s probably the most fitting tune on this compilation.
Meanwhile, Voices – featuring current and ex-members of Akercocke – combine a progressive streak with their dark brand of black / death metal on ‘Petrograph’, but again this is a difficult one to get into for me in spite of the commanding vocal presence and hammering rhythm section. Fans of Type O Negative though will certainly revel in the sinister aspects of this cut.
The last two tracks on offer come from Desolator (‘Full Power’) and Nine Covens (‘Through Fires Of Tyranny’). The former is a rather tepid Kreator-styled speed metal romp of no real identity or power considering its title. As for Nine Covens, we have a routine black metal-by-numbers cacophony that offers up the usual dark ambience and spiky noise to bring this latest volume to a close.
I’m certainly joyous that it has come, but there’s certainly an uneven quality to proceedings. If given the task I would have revelled in choosing the bands to have featured, but as it stands Speed Kills VII is not great, but hopefully it hints at more to come.
Neil Arnold
