Year Of Metal #002: Toxic Holocaust - Evil Never Dies
When the random number generator hit on a band called “Toxic Holocaust”, I admit my heart sank a little bit. I’d engaged in minimal research before choosing the LPs for this project, relying instead on various Best Albums Of Year X lists. This one featured highly, so it gained a spot. When it made its way out as the number 2 pick, I feared something genuinely horrible, a properly abrasive teeth-on-edge job I’d suffer through.
Not a bit of it. Had I done my homework, I’d have realised that this record packs in about as much charm as you could reasonably expect from a band with such a knowingly outrageous name. While it became more of a proper group, on this 2003 debut Toxic Holocaust is the working name of Joel Grind, a one man metal machine with an ear for ‘80s thrash as well as hardcore punk. I think you can tell it’s a solo operation - there’s no live sound to this, but the solitary nature of the production has allowed Grind to fine tune every element. “War Is Hell”, the first song proper, is absolutely airtight, with a fantastic whizzing riff and breakneck drums.
The fun factor on the record is inescapable and invaluable. It’s never more clearly a singular vision than when Grind takes the track down a wild path for his own amusement. “Damned To Fire” in particular sees the artist lob everything available against the wall, charging into a solo for all of four seconds to round off a madcap two minutes of music. “Enemy Of Jesus” goes one better in the frantic stakes, a non-stop build peaking with a wild section of whammy bar wailing and shredding.
“Exxxecutioner” is my pick of the bunch. It’s the closest he gets to full on punk rock; take a little of the growl out the vocals and it could be a Germs song or something. “666” is also a smash - it’s a testament to Grind’s charisma that he can deliver lines like “following Jesus? You're a fucking fool” and describe assaulting members of the clergy in grizzly fashion and still sound like basically a fun time guy.
I feel like this kind of metal wasn’t really being served up too much on its 2003 release, with the big boys of thrash either defunct, slowing it down, or far from relevant. It seems odd to call such music joyful but it sort of is, reminding us all there’s still scope for bonkers tunes about worshipping Satan with wrist breakingly fast, uber-precise riffs from cover to cover.
The album’s short runtime is definitely a smart choice - it’s fair to say there’s not exactly a lot of variety here - and it makes for a great time played front to back. The death metal vocals are sure to be a dealbreaker for a lot of people, but it’s worth looking past that to get to the heart of the record: 12 snarling songs about murder, paganism, and nuclear annihilation.
