Damn, this is angry music!

The Swedes Subcyde has been around as a band since 1997, and why this is their first full length album, I can only be guessing about, because they sure have something to offer in the aggressive end of the thrash scene. They’ve been signed to the smaller Swedish label Last Entertainment; one can only hope that they can do their job to promote this band properly, because there’s quality for a larger audience for these guys.

Musical comparisons to early Testament, Soilwork, Machine Head, Sepultura and even Pantera can easily be made, and I think it overall holds the level of the mentioned bands. So this is more old school type of thrash, but also with a groovy edge on the riffing part. That doesn’t mean that it’s worn out or gets boring stylistically – who gets tired of good, heavy and strong hooks and riffs, that appeals to the upper muscular areas of the back?

Subcyde is clearly at their strongest, when the numbers goes into the midtempo or slower crushing parts – headbanging allowed! On some of the last tracks of the album, they even get melodic in intros and solos, without loosing the aggressive touch.

Vocally we’re into some pretty deep and aggressive roaring (think a mix of Chuck Billy, Phil Anselmo and Jens Kidman (Meshuggah), and you’re on the right track), not exactly my personal favourite in vocals, but very appropriate for this kind of music, and certainly better than the high pitched screaming that some vocalists falls back to.

The production is done by the bands guitarist Ola Englund, and is dirty, deep and crunchy – fitting the compositions fine, and a job well done.

I’m a bit puzzled about the cover artwork, a very dark drawing or photo (hard to tell, but technically ok from a drawing point of view) of a pentagram with barbed wire and the roaring face of a horned monster. Together with the style in lettering in the band name, it initially gave me associations towards death or black metal, which hardly can be the description for this. Apparently It’s the bands logo, and therefore made years ago, but I actually thought this kind of symbols were outdated…but maybe it looks good on t-shirts(?).

If you need a good shot of aggressively pumping classic thrash, then Subcyde is absolutely worth a try.

Recommended tracks: ‘Sacred Scars’, ‘Power Smash’, ‘Pitchblack’ and ‘All for Extinction’.