July 28, 2010

Ohio’s thrash metal experience has come a long way from Destructor’s early 80’s assault by way of Vindicator, already on its second effort The Antique Witcheries.

After the impressive debut full-length There Will be Blood Vindicator follows its line of playing on Witcheries with much of the same thrash metal effort as its predecessor. With some very heavy plodding, sweeping-and-galloping riffs the band manages to take a somewhat formulaic medium and make it interesting enough to enjoy and pay forward. Some early Baloff-era Exodus is prevalent here, as well as some Purgatory Tied to the Tracks influence. You could actually sit here all day and find a million bands to influence Vindicator’s sound, but what makes it resonate is the fact that it’s just damn good.

“Quarry Rats” is a definitive throwback to the early eighties thrashy speed movement that permeated the underground Bay area in a sea of Motley Crues and Ratts that were garnering all of the attention. The ever-prevalent chanting of choruses is periodically sprinkled about with care so as not to drown the device, rendering it a cliché as opposed to a welcome addition. The band seems to understand the genre and resists any and all temptations to languish in mediocrity, producing a series of well-executed metal tracks that will satisfy the most denouncing fan. I certainly think there’s something here for everyone to enjoy if you’re a fan of good old metal from the past.

With a solid production and strong tracks like “Dead in the Water”, “Fear Monger”, “Raze the Dead” and “Quarry Rats” The Antique Witcheries can easily be on anyone’s true thrash metal ‘to-do’ list; it’s certainly worth the time you’d invest in some other band that has no real sense of what the medium needs to remain vital. Vindicator fits the bill and delivers its brand of heavy metal without reserve or reticence.

Release Date: August 10, 2010
Label: Heavy Artillery Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Gates of Inequity (Intro)
2.  Beneath the Guillotine
3.  Fear Monger
4.  Sewn to the Flesh
5.  Quarry Rats
6.  The Antique Witcheries
7.  Raze the Dead
8.  Communal Decay
9.  Dead In the Water
10.  Pit of the Shaggoths
11.  Strange Aeons

Total playing time: 73:27

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*Comments:

Vindicator - The Antique Witcheries

Reviewer: Chris