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HARDWARES

WEST OF HELL

Spiral Empire

(Reversed Records)

Reviewed by : Greg Pratt
Rating : 7.5

How refreshing is it to listen to a modern CD that is thrash but brings bands like SACRED REICH to mind instead of, say, SLAYER? Very. Vancouver’s WEST OF HELL got it down pat here: the huge riffs, big grooves, fat production, soaring hairy and hoary metal-dude vocals… it’s mainly about the whole package here, as it’s not like the songwriting is amazingly memorable or the riffs are astounding, but put it all together and there’s just nothing to complain about within each song. The band, featuring Zimmers Hole vocalist Chris Valagao, certainly have their thrash chops down, the years of studious nerding out obvious on every riff, the love of even lower-level thrash from the ’80s coming through with every second here. And it’s not all speedy fast either, the band spending lots of time in mid-tempo turf, exploring a more trad metal groove and chug than most modern thrashers. Fun album, although the sum total is a bit long in the tooth at 53 minutes.