CRY HAVOK

The whole retro-thrash thing has already pretty much worn itself out, and, generally speaking, if you’re not Municipal Waste, Warbringer or maybe maybe maybe Merciless Death, I just don’t really give a shit these days. I’m over it.

Or at least I thought I was… until I heard Havok’s Burn.

Havok make retro-thrash so convincing that if someone played it for me and told me it was, in fact, some Bay Area band from the 80s I’d just never heard of, I would believe them. But so what? That doesn’t differentiate Havok from a gajillion other bands. Nor, I suppose, does the fact that they can clearly playing the living goddamn shit out of their instruments.

What sets Havok apart from the pack, then, is the quality of their songwriting. It seems like the vast majority of these old-skool thrash outfits are taking their cues from bands like Exodus and Anthrax – relatively short, punkish party tunes to imbibe massive amounts of Jager by. And there’s certainly room for that in the world.

But Havok seem to have something more in mind. In case the “Blackened”-like intro didn’t tip you off, Havok aim to evoke Metallica and Megadeth at their most brash: still good for drinking Jager, but just a little more technical, a little proggier, a little more epic, and a helluva lot catchier than the stuff their peers are playing. So while every song on the album is guaranteed to give you roadburn, the songs are also dynamic, giving the album excellent replay value.

Havok’s Burn is proof positive that a good band can always make the old tricks seem new again. This record might not change your life, but it will give you 49 minutes of awesome thrash metal.

(four out of five horns)

-AR