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Gammacide > Gammacide > Reviews
Gammacide - Gammacide

Average thrash demo with great production - 71%

UltraBoris, May 14th, 2004

Gammacide are one of many, MANY bands out there that were playing thrash at this point in time... apparently, their LP sounds like Exhorder, but this demo really doesn't as much, as it's lacking that absurdly heavy guitar tone that is the Exhorder trademark. This sounds more like an Exodus album - I wouldn't be surprised if they had put out something like this after Bonded by Blood, actually.

It's no Bonded by Blood, but it's still pretty good thrash. At times there is a bit of death-metal influence, since there are a few fast blasty drum sections, but for the most part this is straight-up thrash. Lots of timing breaks, virtually one in every song. As is the custom, the opener is the songest track, though the closer, Incubus, has the coolest middle break. But the intro has a nice set of buildup riffs that compare well with just about any thrash matter out there.

Vocals are sort of a high-pitched bark, a bit sarcastic and Nuclear-Assault, but not nearly as skewed towards the Killian as is possible, though reminiscent of halfway between Baloff's deranged howls and Zetros's snarls. Pretty decent vocal performance, and somehow it sticks out.

Perhaps it's the production, which is some of the best I've ever heard on a demo. This would put most full-length albums to shame. It's neither slick nor muddy, and pretty much you can't scream THRASH more effectively than with this sort of choppy, guitar-oriented, vicious sound. The tone is perfect, and the mix is effective (though a bit left-skewed in the stereo field, oddly).

The songwriting is merely "okay". Nothing that would differentiate it from the pack especially, but still this is competent and they don't try any stupid bullshit, a la Metallica. This is straight-up fast thrash from beginning to end, and it doesn't ever let up. Maybe after 8 or 9 songs it would get a bit boring, but it serves well for this five-song demo EP.