SUBCYDE – Subcyde

Is pure, Old School Thrash coming back? Recently, one could get the impression that after several years of relative calmness, more aggressive releases in the style of the 80’s old fashioned assault are surfacing again. Maybe the overall decline of New Amercian Metal and NuMetal waves has something to do with it. With Subcyde, Sweden sends their newest horse to the race. New is not really a fitting description for Subcyde, as the band has existed since 1997, however, their self-titled debut album is, of course, the action that displays them out into the light for all to see.

The musicians are all new faces on the global scene, and even considering that they have 10 years of experience, this album is nothing less than a wrecking ball bursting through to your eardrums. Song titles like “Knives In The Dark” or “Power Smash” leave no doubt that these four guys intended to give fans 43 minutes of aggression. With the three opening tracks (the two mentioned above and “War Infected”), Subcyde already put the bar quite high for anything that follows. With this trio of fast, heavy songs, coupled sometimes with a certain groove and dual guitar leads (quite unusual for this type of music), Subcyde leave nothing for which to wish. In the course of the album, the tempo is varied a few times (check out “A Sea Of Serpents,” “Hollow Death,” “Sacred Scars,” and “All For Extinction”). This not only shows that they can also write ultra-heavy tracks and slow tracks, it also keeps the album from being monotonous. Well done — there have been bigger bands that could not manage this feat.

Mostly, though, heavy riffing and fast parts dominate the album, and make it an refreshingly Old School Thrash CD. The production is raw, but good, the guitars shred like hell, drums are often dominated by a hammering double bass, and the vocals, somewhere in the wake of Phil Anselmo or Max Cavalera, are not unusual for this genre. That makes this an album where the target group is crystal clear and can already count their money to add Subcyde to their collection. Fans of Classic Thrash like Pantera, Testament, Sepultura, Exodus, Vio-Lence, etc., should get this one.

That said, Subcyde will certainly not win a prize for originality, maybe except for occasional clear guitar leads and solos like in “Sacred Scars,” but managed to create a debut album that is definitely above average. It would be recommended for other Metalheads to listen to a song or two as well, unfortunately, the band has no clips on their Web site from this album (but, you can hear songs from this album by making DJ Requests on Metal Express Radio!).