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Toxic Holocaust: Evil Never Dies (2010 Reissue) Thrash Metal Witches Brew, Relapse Records October 1st, 2003
Originally posted on January 8th, 2010 | |||
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Review
Let the Thrash revival begin with one of the earliest acts looking back to the past of Thrash metal: Toxic Holocaust. While this isn't the act's debut release, having recorded two demos and two split releases prior to this, Evil Never Dies marks the debut full length album for this band. From the moment the music actually kicks in, it'll be a wave of nostalgia as the raw sound throwsback to the early days of Metal. However, when you happen to look at any information about the band, you'll see that this release may be going to way of underground and "kvlt" Black Metal acts by being a solo entity. The sad thing is that this is one of the better Thrash releases in a long while, and it's all orchestrated by one man. While the introduction "Evil Never Dies" kind of leaves you waiting and is a bit corny, you need to embrace it and realize that this release is not meant to come off as that polished new CD you just bought from a powerhouse label with plenty of money to get behind their new musical acquisition. Instead, the quality is very low and rather raw, working well with the old-school pure Thrash sound presented here. Each song on here is just fast paced and filled with riffs that you would find on any early metal record, with some rather interesting guitar solos, including a small bass solo on "666". There really isn't much to say about this album except that it captures the raw fury and tenacity of the glory days of metal perfectly. Each song is as if you are on some sort of trap back in time with the Wayback Machine. While each song on here is as blistering as the next, there are some tracks on here that will make you just want to run out and rip someone's face off, such as "Dead to the World" with it's sheer intensity and pounding guitar riffs and drums. The only track on here that doesn't really have the insane flow to it that just about every other song on here has would be the track "Fallout" due to the more technical guitar work and slower bridges and such, with the only real speed coming from the drum kicks. The next track, "Atomik Destruktor" takes you right back into the madness, but the track is actually just short of two minutes, as the rest of it goes back to the same sound effects that you heard with the track "Evil Never Dies". Relapse Records 2010 Reissue The 2010 reissue features the same twelve tracks that made up the original Evil Never Dies release in all their unedited glory. Considering this one was just released not too long ago, there really woudl be no reason to remaster the tracks, especially since they sound like higher end rough recordings from the early 80's anyhow. If you already own the release, there's really no reason to pick up this one outside of showing your patronage, but if you recently hopped on board with this band around the time of their 2008 release An Overdose Of Death... then this is a very cost effective way of expanding your collection and hearing some of the earlier material. It's just too bad that this does not feature any bonus material since there are plenty of other Split, EP, and demo releases by Toxic Holocaust. Either way, Evil Never Dies is one hell of a Thrash throwback. The material on here will awaken the metal spirit in many of the older fans, and newer fans will get a rude, yet welcome, education on what this style was like years ago when it was fresh and new. If you haven't had a chance to check out Toxic Holocaust yet, then this is definitely a release that shouldn't be passed up any longer.
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