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Hatchet Album Review
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Band Name: Hatchet
Album Name: Awaiting Evil Rating: 3 / 5 User Rating: 0 / 5 Label: Metal Blade Records Buy Album: Amazon.com Rate Album: Rate |
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Tracklist 1 Darkening Skies 2 Frailty Of The Flesh 3 Sealed Fate 4 Frozen Hell 5 Attack Imminent 6 Morlocks Tomb 7 Storm The Gates 8 The Dead Will March 9 Awaiting Evil |
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Old-School Thrash... The genre many see as the starting point for some of their favourite sub-genres of metal, some even say it's the purest form of metal... To say old school thrash fans are a dedicated bunch would be an understatement. Although the genre was responsible for many new styles, the "purest" form of it became a dead art by the time the early 90's hit. Major labels pretty much had enough and were no longer signing thrash bands. So for quite a while, the only way to enjoy these classic and forgotten albums was to either download them, or participate in expensive auctions through eBay. Around five years ago, however, a resurgence of sorts was brewing. Demand began building for reissues of albums of fans' favourite lost/lesser known heroes. Coinciding was the reunions of several pioneering acts. Major labels hadn't signed thrash bands in a while but began to take notice once again - more and more one could see what was to be the making of a revival. So here we are five years later and dozens of young bands have entered the fray trying to recreate the magic that made thrash's first wave so special. But it would only mean that any band wanting to call themselves a proper thrash band would need to bear in mind that the risk factor would be quite high, as any attempts at modifying the sacred formula could yield disaster... Garnering a mixed reaction at best, purists often shun most of these acts for their "latching on" to a trend, and on the other end newer kids who were too young to catch thrash's first run, lending their support. So here we have Hatchet another young band from the Bay Area with their first full length, "Awaiting Evil". Make no mistake everything here has been done MANY times over. My general expectation for a band of this sort is just for them to make a solid album. (It would be quite naïve to expect complete originality to be honest.) To begin Hatchet greets us with an acoustic interlude with lush soloing over the top which is a nice introduction to the album… Before I go any further I'd like to say the production here is raw and did actually make me feel like I was listening to a record straight out of 1986… As the album goes along, though, you begin to see a pattern. Just about every song has a solid riff structure, but it is not highlighted nearly enough. (Not enough proper thrash breaks). The other issue I have is that the leads are pretty much the same throughout every song. I'd actually like to hear more in the way of trade-offs between the two guitarists. This would provide that much needed variation. The one thing I would say with Hatchet is that their ideas don't feel slap dashed or cut and paste... There are a few progressions that sound familiar but they incorporate them in a way that doesn't feel "stolen." These boys seem to be holding their hands, and this restraint is a very good trait to have and automatically puts them miles ahead of the likes of many other thrash revivalists. They could very well play every riff that comes to their minds, but don't. On to vocals, these fluctuate between the standard fare thrash vocal and higher screaming reminiscent of a young Tom Araya (just as one popular example). Another thing to note is that there are very few gang vocals here but the album doesn't seem to miss them. Think of this album as a mixture of Metallica and Testament type progressions with bits of crossover and darker styling of the more obscure bands outside of the "Big 4". When it comes right down to it, this band has the right approach but really just needed to accentuate a few more points to make this release something other than just merely decent. I did enjoy myself though and really hope they turn things up for their next opus. 3 out of 5 check them at:- http://www.myspace.com/hatchet2006 Review by: obsidian! Read Member Reviews |
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