Havok - Burn

October 7, 2009

Reviewer: J. A. Burt

So here we have another hungry young thrash band trying to make its way in this current resurgence.  Hailing from Colorado, Havok plays thrash that is decidedly towards the “retro” end of the spectrum and heavily influenced by bands like Exodus and particularly Testament.  Their debut album Burn has no black metal vocals, and no keyboards.  It’s simply Bay-area inspired rockin thrash with minimal modernization.  The only things that really let you know that this was put out in 2009 and not 1989 are the crisp, bright production job, and the elevated level of technicality present in most of the songs. 

The guys in Havok are all extremely proficient musicians, and bassist Jesse de los Santos in particular puts in a stunning performance here.  The songwriting is decent, and everything seems to be in order, but unfortunately there aren’t a lot of really memorable songs here.  While they manage to hit upon all the trappings of the classic thrash era (socio-political lyrical content, tight dexterous riffing, sneering vocals, and wild solos) the material largely lacks that spark of danger that I’ve always felt made thrash good thrash.  Perhaps I’ve just always preferred evil to conscience.  It’s not until the last two songs that Havok manage to really get it in gear, and the results are some blistering thrash anthems.

Havok’s a young band and this is only their first album.  While it’s not the modern thrash bible, it’s far from terrible.  They’ve shown us that they sure as hell know their instruments, and that they are capable of writing mature and competent songs.  Now they just gotta work on mastering the art of excitement and hopefully manage to inject some more edge into their art.

Release Date: June 2nd, 2009
Label: Candlelight Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Wreckquiem
2.  The Root of Evil
3.  Path to Nowhere
4.  Morbid Symmetry
5.  Identity Theft
6.  The Disease
7.  Scabs of Trust
8.  Ivory Tower
9.  To Hell
10.  Category of the Dead
11.  Melting the Mountain
12  .Afterburner

Total playing time: 49:18

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