One of the lesser known later bands of the second wave of thrash, coming out of BC, Canada. Originally formed in 2003 as Skull Hammer, changed name in 2016. Sounding a lot like their contemporaries, like Havok in the relentless riffage and Warbringer with the blast beats. This one needs to be cranked more loudly to fully appreciate what they have to offer.
Edit: Upon blasting this out my speakers I have to say this is one hell of a great pure modern thrash album! Standouts are the first two tracks, and Sect of the Serpent!
While I can’t say I’m the a huge fan of the vocals, the drumming here is so consistently excellent that I find myself wondering “is this secretly a death metal band?”. I’ve often questioned, “why does no one seem to talk about Terrifier?”, best guess, a combo of getting less exposure from being stuck in a smaller scene, and not being particularly productive in a fairly saturated field.
I practically said the same thing about Warbringer after their first couple of albums, but the consistency they show, in addition to (imo) actually improving on thrash metal as a whole, they do get better with each album. And while Terrifier already have a couple other albums out, they might improve, but it could go either way. The drumming is definitely excellent for both as well! But Kevill seems to be a bit more charismatic on vocals - just stronger in general. When WB’s last album came out they had a a track that was practically full death metal, so that’s my reason for the heavy comparison. And truly, I had never heard of Terrifier before today, only after I had to actually go out of my way to google for the keywords “lesser known thrash bands.”
Yeah, the Warbinger comparisons are pretty spot on, not that I would say they’re particularly derivative, it’s just clear they’re reaching for a lot of the same ideas. I still have high hopes for Terrifier, they DO have what it takes, they just need to get that killer album with a few solid fresh ideas, and I feel that people will end up noticing. It’s not as if they do not deserve to be popular already, it’s just hard to catch people’s attention when you have so much competition, a lot of it is just luck.