Year Of Metal #038: Onslaught - Killing Peace
When first I navigated to the Wikipedia page of Bristolian metal stalwarts Onslaught, my first thought was oh great - more thrash. When I read that this 2007 record - their fourth, and first since a near-two decade layoff - was considered functional if essentially derivative, my heart sank further. But I come to you today with a declaration that would no doubt get me lynched in certain circles (or it would if metalheads weren’t, as a rule, so nice) - this is the best thrash album I’ve ever heard.
There are plenty of reasons to deliver such a sizzling hot take, but the simplest one is this: these dudes really know how to write a chorus. My problem with thrash time and again has been that the songs don’t just fade into each other, they fade into themselves, a big grabbag of the same old tricks, chugging riffs, double kick pedals, wheedly solos. Opener “Burn” absolutely doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it comes to life with a killer, instantly memorable, energising chorus. Again you can’t accuse them of treading brand new turf as they chant “Burn! Burn! Burn!”, but it’s a real shot in the arm, given great heft by producer Andy Sneap (who, from his production credits, is the real deal and no mistake, varied and prolific).
A few songs in, we get to the really good stuff. “Destroyer Of Worlds” is as much fun as I’ve had with a metal track thus far. There’s an anti-war theme to this whole record, and the tune begins in explosively unsubtle fashion with the titular Bob Oppenheimer quote. Everything’s played super tight as we march menacingly to a chorus. When we get there, it suddenly jumps to double time, Sy Keeler snapping feverishly into a promise of death and destruction for all and sundry. The solo has a bit of Dimebag Darrell to it, less a virtuosic show of skill, more a compliment to the song itself. It’s choked and tense.
My other favourite is “Prayer For The Dead”. Here Onslaught slow it down and get a lot out of a knotty riff that’s almost math-rock in tone. Killing Peace has so much heft and body to it, which feels particularly distinctive in a subgenre that can overdo it with the treble and sound thin and underproduced. This track is just monstrous, a crashing, stomping thing. I mean this entirely as a compliment, but it would make fantastic entrance music for a wrestler. The slow thump of the track opens the doors for the best solo on the record, too, an unexpectedly slippery, lightning quick run out in the best thrash fashion, then giving way to a twin-guitar display that harks back to the original riff. Thoughtful stuff!
I can completely understand a long time thrash fan listening to this and thinking So what? The confines of the subgenre as I understand it do mean there’s only so much you can actually do to make yourself distinct, and maybe someone more familiar with the older stuff would be picking up on the more obvious it’s been done parts of this album. But for me, with the little I know, the sheer fact that Onslaught have structured their songs to peak with killer, memorable choruses puts this ahead of a lot of stuff.
