Chemicide - Violence Prevails ★★★☆☆
Updated: Mar 6
THRASH METAL | 2025 — BANDCAMP INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | METAL-ARCHIVES FOR FANS OF: SURGICAL STRIKE, KORROSIVE, TYMO
THRASH-O-METER
★★☆☆☆ SONGWRITING
★★★★☆ THEMES
★★☆☆☆ LONGEVITY
★★☆☆☆ PRODUCTION
★★★★☆ THRASHABILITY
★★★☆☆ GOOD SH!T
Diving deep into the core of Thrash Metal: injustice, conflict, and war, this Costa Rican thrashmonster returns absolutely topical for the very times we are living in - just take a look outside the window and you'll know what I'm talkin' about.
'Do as I say, Not as I Do' snaps you into the right frequency regardless of where you are. The band's previous albums have been pretty good so I was absolutely ready for some societal thrashin'! Interestingly, there's a lot of talk about "old school thrash metal" when folks talk about Chemicide but to me they're very distinctly a poster child of the New Wave of Thrash Metal - which is nowadays all but dead with few hearty troopers still managing to stay relevant. Fortunately there's the New New Wave of Thrash Metal kickin' and firin' on all cylinders but that's another story!
'Red Giant' was the only single the band put out for this album and it did manage to get my attention. There's a delicious balance to tight thrashin' and mid-tempo swingin', and I'm down (hard) with compositions that lets the music breathe. 'Prey of Failure' jumped at me with a slow-motion karate kick and left the smell of Anthrax in my spinnin' head. An impudent stretchy guitar pairs well with a groovy rumble. You'll let that cool whip loose fo shizzle!
Tried and true
The energy comes across clear and they tap into the elements, but alas, the songs ain't there. Sure, you can thrash about with this one and it'll fit into any Thrash Metal playlists in Spotify for example, but the high points are conspicuously absent. Violence Prevails leans heavily on too familiar ground with worn genre conventions rather than anything freshly sharpened.
The album ends with few covers: Metallica's '72 Seasons' and Los Crudo's 'That's right, We're That Spic Band !!!', which while somewhat interesting don't really bring anything beyond couple more minutes into the whole which clocks around 36.
Frankie's vocals shear across frayed, yet delightfully articulate as the message is a heavy one. The sound of Violence Prevails comes across fast and light, but also raw. Them overall feels has Chemicide's stamp of rhythm guitar running with high beams. What’s new here is that the guitars create more of a wall of sound, with heavy reverb obscuring the finer details. Not that problematic with speakers or when the going has gotten tough, so to say, but with any kind of head gear it becomes painfully pronounced. Chaotic and messy.
Violence Prevails is a Thrash Metal album
Unfortunately that's the thing that jumps to mind when thinking about this sh!t after a number of spins. It is a letdown for sure but that might be because January was absolutely insane and really set the bar for 2025.
Violence Prevails is a fair Thrash Metal album that most likely will give fans of the genre their fix. However, as an album it is far too monotonous and goes without proper song-to-song ups and downs to be interesting enough to warrant that honest to Lucifer back-to-back listening action.