BLACK FAST
Spectre Of Ruin ENTERTAINMENT ONE MUSIC Missouri marauders force their way to the top of the thrash pack
IT’S TESTAMENT To the visceral power of thrash metal that, even in its fourth decade, it’s still producing thrilling and vital music, despite most of its modern class refusing to deviate too far from its blueprint. Black Fast are almost the perfect example of why this wheel has spun at breakneck speed without reinvention for so long; the ferocity of their blackened thrash is so seductive that you’re too busy wrecking your neck to consider where they fit in today’s tapestry of musical culture. Over their previous two albums, 2013’s Starving Out The Light and Terms Of Surrender in 2015, there were more than a few hints that Black Fast were capable of making something definitive, and Spectre Of Ruin is going to be some hurdle to leap over next time out. Opener Cloak Of Lies boots the door clean off of its hinges, marrying pace, savagery and extremity like a modern-day Kreator armed with a rusty chainsaw guitar tone. It’s a superb start and the bar hardly drops below that level for the next nine tracks and 43 minutes. Mist Of Ruin is built on a battering ram of a drum tattoo that would get Dave Lombardo salivating, while Scarecrow And Spectre adapts its riff attack so often that’s it akin to having your skull staved in by a blurred volley of fists, elbows, knees and foreheads rather than a straightforward punch to the face. The level of quality of the ‘thrash revival’ bands during the last few years has been mightily impressive, and, with an album like this in their pocket, Black Fast have put themselves in the company of its very finest members.
FOR FANS OF: KREATOR, GOATWHORE, POWER TRIP