Excimer "Thrash From Fire"

    Prepare to be thrashed by a young act from Alexandria, Egypt. Excimer offer up ten tracks of old school sounding thrash on their full-length release, “Thrash From Fire.”
    Originally recorded as a digital album, the band worked out a deal with the German label Witches Brew and had the album officially released on CD in March of this year. Taking a page from the unholy thrash book that was set forth by bands such as Testament, Metallica, Overkill, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth and a list that can take up an entire paragraph. These dudes looks to tear up the streets and win over those leather jacket wearing thrash maniacs. 
    “Thrash From Fire,” definitely comes across with a little more aggression thrown into the tracks. I think the band takes influence from a variety of different metal styles and creates their own unique musical sound of expression. The opening song, “Hell on Earth,” is fierce and relentless sounding. Of course there are many revival thrash bands who have written songs in this style, but I feel Excimer’s presentation has a raw and exciting quality to it. As a young band you hear where they are trying to push their talents into a more intense and technical direct, yet they stay true to their capabilities. Unlike some groups who feel like they need to play lightening fast and overwhelm listeners with random shredding, Excimer sticks to just writing a solid piece of thrash music.
    Track number two, “Victims of Plague,” reaches into that classic Metallica realm with a variety of heavy sounding instrumental parts. The vocals are definitely more harsh sounding than your usual thrash vocals. I hear some early black metal influence which just increases the band’s raw nature. “Provoke the Slaughter” and “War Terror,” continue that doomsday thrash attitude and features some wicked riffs.
    One of my favorite tracks on this album is, “The Curse of Seth.” There are some really sinister sounding guitar parts and the song’s overall tone is pure evil sounding. The whole band is locked in on this destructive sounding riff that makes the track stand out from the rest.
    There are also a couple covers on this album. For song number eight, Excimer covers Kreator’s, “Cry War.” I thought this was a strong cover because I hear a lot of early Kreator in Excimer’s sound. Now, song number ten is a cover of Judas Priest’s, “Rapid Fire.” I personally wasn’t as impressed with this cover as I was with the Kreator cover. Covering Judas Priest is not an easy challenge, especially given the band’s iconic status in the metal world. Still, Excimer tried and they approached the song with their own style instead of trying to mimic Priest note for note.
    Excimer’s, “Thrash From Fire,” is another one of those thrash albums that displays the undying love that young musicians have for this style of music. Their music can appeal to extreme thrash fans from across the globe. With more work and dedication to their craft, I believe Excimer will be a strong and recognizable force in the thrash world. If this is what they have to offer us now...I can’t wait to hear what they will come up with next! \m/

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