Delirium

There’s something to an album that you discover years ago, listen to it once and then basically never think about it again… only to, years later, go back through that band’s earlier work and find that rather enjoyable to the point where you’re giving that first album you’re listening to another shot. That’s basically Delirium to me. It sounded like mediocre modern thrash and, as such, it was shelved, never to be listened to again. However, going back through Victimize the Innocent and Misleading Evil reveals a modern thrash band that, at their best moments, had some serious melodic chops. Something that was missing from quite a large constituent of the scene, especially during the mid-2010s when it seemed like thrash just kinda gave up. Those were notions that Hazzerd were not going to accept lying down, resulting in an occasionally good EP and a very fucking good debut album. Overall, maybe I was a bit rash in underestimating these guys four years ago, right?

Well, not really, because Delirium is still not a very good album. Though certainly not without trying, it doesn’t do a lot to fight off those initial thoughts. Certainly not with how it starts. After greeting us with a Malmsteen-style solo, we’re then born witness… to mediocre speed metal riffs. Ah, but they’re at least building onto something, right? Not exactly. Unfortunately, the riffs just check off thrash metal cliches and refuse to elaborate. The production does it no favors, given their overall dryness robbing the riffs of their power while hollowing out the drums (all while increasing their prominence in the mix). The overall flatness especially robs the chorus of its punch, making it sound more pedestrian and boring than, you know, fun and punchy. Worse off is that this is the case with basically the rest of the album, except that they don’t even have a beginning that sounds like a missing song off an early Malmsteen album. All I end up looking forward to after a while are the ridiculously scorching guitar solos, since Hazzerd have at least kept those in rotation. Granted, the production often makes them a bit more plastic-y, but it doesn’t let down the neoclassical virtuosity of the solos, so there’s still that, at least.

Sounds like a slight dud, but there are some redeeming qualities (beyond the solos, I mean). “Dead in the Shed” is a surprisingly good track reminiscent of the best cuts off their first album, as the razor-sharp speed metal and mid-paced riffing bond like peanut butter and jelly, and the chorus riff complements the gang-shouted title repeat. Just the sheer immediacy of the riffs juxtaposed by the urgent pacing of the vocals gives the chorus a rather punchy quality, but the rest of the song isn’t even close to hitting the snooze button as it instead proves itself an energetic romp that’s simultaneously captivating throughout its runtime due to its sheer riffing prowess. What could’ve been another throwaway thrasher ends up a damn good song. On the other end, “Call of the Void” was a worrying point after going through three mediocre thrash songs, since it was an instrumental and thus it was going to be an even worse version of those three songs. Yet, it actually ends up a rather well-composed instrumental. Rather than just thrashing on through, it adopts a jazzier motif, with a more understated approach to musicianship and a deceptively complex structure to keep the solos and even the riffs engaging without the need to be overly flashy. A more down-to-earth affectation, even when it starts to break into a faster variation (and really, the drumming didn’t have to go that hard and fast, especially not when the solo is still on the down-low both tempo and presence-wise, and even the riff isn’t that fast or heavy, either). These songs remind me of a Hazzerd that could’ve been – though how I forgot all about these songs until giving this another go around, I’ll never know. Maybe I haphazardly lumped them in with the rest of the album at the time.

Outside of those two songs, Delirium is quite a step down from Misleading Evil. The riffs are weaker, the melodies are less engaging, and there’s just nothing to really grab onto apart from maybe the solos. Both albums may have about the same fundamentals, but where Misleading Evil made these cliches interesting, Delirium fumbled the ball and made them fall somewhere between decent and mediocre.

Anyone who is familiar with South Park knows that Canada produces pure trash called The Queef Sisters. A show in a show about two sisters who do nothing but enjoy giving pussyfarts in other people's faces. Thank heaven, Canada also offers real Thrash. Calgary-based band Hazzerd has been thrashing through their country since 2013 and has recently released their second record, Delirium. Leaving aside their first EP, Victimize the Innocent. Officially only thirteen of them have been physical made and sold.

The band is founded by the, then teenagers, Dylan Westendorp on drums and vocals and Brendan Malycky on guitar. Both were inspired by bands such as Exodus, Overkill, Anthrax and Metallica. And unto now the band has changed their name twice, eight members have joined and six of them have left. Often due to clumsy or silly circumstances. Hazzerd continues to make rock solid eighties thrash metal as you could hear on their first album Misleading Evil.

For Delirium, the band says in an interview that they were inspired by Megadeath's Rust in Peace because of the fast and tight drumming of Nick Menza and the lyrics of Dave Mustaine. Vinnie Moore's album Mind's Eye was a source of inspiration because of the tight guitar riffs as well as Iron Maiden's accurate guitar playing on Piece of Mind. A salient detail is that they only got to know the song The Trooper from the 2006 computer game Guitar Hero II. The only record from this century is Tyranex' Deathroll that in a whole was a source of inspiration.

You can hear all of these influences in Delirium. The album has ten songs, including two instrumentals. The album opens with a tight finger solo on the guitar in Sacrifice them (in the name of God). This song is the perfect opener for a good thrash metal record. The second song, A Tormented Reality, immediately hits it with heavy riffs, guitar solos and good up-tempo drumming by drummer and singer Dylan Westendorp. Think a bit of Anthrax's party thrash combined with Overkill's more serious work.

This continues for two more songs until Call of the Void: The first instrumental song that sounds more like traditional heavy metal. Clocking six minutes makes it a bit too long for me to stay interesting enough. Fortunately, Dead in the Shed comes next. I listen to this track with a big smile on my face: the song reminds me of Bonded by Blood by Exodus. Illuminated Truth follows. This song is a bit slower and sounds a bit more like traditional heavy metal. Waking the Nightmare and The Decline are somewhat similar in structure: they start rather quietly and slowly build up to fast thrash songs. The record ends with the second instrumental track, The End (outro).

Delirium has all the ingredients for a solid thrash record where the above influences are clearly audible. The only downside is that the album feels a bit long and therefore it fails to fascinate the total amount of 50 minutes.

Canada's roster certainly isn't short of decent thrash metal. Though they're never quite at the forefront of zines as their US counterparts, icon veterans such as Annihilator or up-and-coming gems like Lutharö or West Of Hell all kick various amounts of ass, and manage to carve unique identities whilst doing so. As is the case with Calgary's Hazzerd. Having existed since at least 2013, Hazzerd play technically-infused, progressively-tinged thrash metal straight out of the early '90s - with the awesome production quality to match. Their sophomore effort, 2020's Delirium, may seem, externally, just like any other nu-thrash record buried among the piles of rejects of this sub-genre. However, this quartet stand out from the crowd in one aspect: this is the only thrash metal band I know where the drummer is the vocalist. Off the top of my head, the only metal band, period, where the drummer is the vocalist! Dylan Westendorp - besides having an awesome name - does a stellar job behind both the kit and the mic; his vocals, in particular, being brilliantly sneery and full of character.

This might explain, however, why the drums are so far forward in the mix! Dylan may be the semi-star of the show, but that's not to disparage the other band members, especially the dual guitar attack of Brendan and Toryin. These guys bounce off each other, frantically soloing like there's no tomorrow...but only when the song allows. Every frenetic lick and lead break is both tasteful and virtuosic. David Sprague's bass is pretty buried - but that's not particularly unusual for this style - however, he does get some brief moments to shine, such as the ripping "Illuminated Truth" or the start of "Victim Of A Desperate Mind". All band members get to flex their chops in the album's centrepiece: the hefty instrumental "Call Of The Void". A silly idea on paper, a 6-minute thrash metal instrumental suddenly makes sense when Hazzerd pull it off with such aplomb. The climax of this track, especially, is stunning and exudes a surprisingly beautiful melody.

Delirium has the technical chops thanks to its talented performers, but can be a little difficult and daunting to experience as a whole package thanks to its odd tonal shifts and sections of filler. Opener "Sacrifice Them (In The Name Of God)" is brilliant. It takes a slower-than-expected approach, but the chorus is total shout-along gold and it brims with scathing anger. The filler comes in the form of little meaningless segments that disrupt the flow of blazing thrash these guys could be producing. "Waking Nightmare" generally tears through the speakers, but starts with a minute of noodling; "Victim Of A Desperate Mind" definitely drags for a minute and a half too long; and ending with the lengthy "The Decline" - followed by the acoustic closer "The End" - doesn't make for the explosive climax I was hoping. This LP didn't need to be quite as long as 50 minutes, but deep within its catacombs are some moments of simple, pure and sincere speed metal glory.

The last minute of "Waking Nightmare" is an exercise in air-guitar and headbanging that every thrash metal fan should mosh around their bedroom to, and "Sanctuary For The Mad" wouldn't be out of place on Anthrax's Persistence Of Time. However, the jewel in the Delirium crown has to be the shred-tastic "Dead In The Shed" (or should that be 'shed-tastic?'). This is the song that makes the most sense when compared to the album art or production quality. The hilarious lyrics, party-thrash atmosphere and general non-stop youthful vibrancy make it easily the highlight of the disc. Hazzerd definitely have incredible amounts of potential, and have made me want to keep my eye on them, but Delirium falls just slightly short of being placed among the highest ranks of thrash metal for 2020. It's got excellent moments, but is tonally inconsistent.

(Originally written for www.metal-observer.com)

Thrash metal with any reasonable approach to authenticity is not sustainable without some meaningful connection to classic heavy rock songwriting, a ‘felt’ defiance by way of punk energy, and the steely-eyed shred fingered competitive spirit of 80’s heavy metal. Extrusion from the bottlenecked mouth of that shoulder-to-shoulder stuffed cave into the light of modern thrash metal is often painful to watch where the easiest shortcut to listenable forms most often involves bland peer imitation, unpracticed musicianship, and ‘unserious ’til we’re selling’ millennial-specific genotypical expression. The effect of those “great in preview, bored on album” type of releases is corrosive upon the already well n’ mangled sub-genre itself. So, you’ll have to forgive the hesitance of us froth-mouthed and brain-starved legions of thrash zombies out there tapping heads and prodding in the dark for riffs worth a damn. Hesitation’d been my initial reaction to the neon yellow splashed quasi-Repka art of ‘Delirium’, the second full-length from Canadian shred-thrashers Hazzerd who’re not the vapid and iterative trudgery I’d assumed. Even a cursory spin through their three official releases thus far showcases a gifted songwriting sense and steadily improving high-caliber skill level appropriate for youths invoking the oldest spirit of thrash metal in an age of information that’d allow the sub-genre’s entire history at their fingertips.

Sociopolitical lyrics laying into corruption and greed are woven within criticism of greater societal madness as Hazzerd‘s lyrics pull focus away from the Megadeth and Havok influenced political conspiracy theorem of the first album (‘Misleading Evil‘, 2017) without losing sight of their take on religious hypocrisy and herd mentality. As the title suggests, ‘Delirium’ is more concerned with the insanity of the present despite its potently aggressive delivery, never reaching ‘Conformicide’ or ‘Dystopia’ levels of foil hat preach-cringe but shaking a finger at the cattle nonetheless. Heavily influenced by peak Megadeth, 80’s shred, and classic heavy metal in general for this second album, Hazzerd escape the street-level thrash of the greater mass of their countrymen by way of tightly wound, precise and wailing guitar performances that rarely feel robotic or plainly repetitive on a full listen.

The whirlwind of ‘Delirium’ comes fast on Side A, giving a first impression not far from a front-loaded generationally appropriate Bay Area bum rush a la early Overkill, or Forbidden though their approach to riffing is more modern and not plainly ‘retro’, closer to the aforementioned Havok (or, Hexen) with some modern shred, power/thrash, and technical thrash techniques applied. None of this would warrant any considerable mention beyond the norm if not for the distinct squawk of drummer/vocalist Dylan Westendorp who provides considerable personality for this already somewhat over-the-top record’s personality with his voice, which lands somewhere between the diction of Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) and the life-affirming howl of Tim Baker (Cirith Ungol). It isn’t fuckin’ Toxik but hey, they could go there if they wanted to and I hope Hazzerd never dial it back. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in it for the ‘ride’ of the songwriting and the riffs but Hazzerd wouldn’t have jumped at me in the ‘classic thrash’ sense without the vocals pushing the listening experience into outrage.

Whether they are a remarkably talented study of classic thrash metal’s overblown underground peak in the mid-to-late 80’s or a particularly gifted anomaly among the most recent wave of Canadian thrash metal vibrancy, what Hazzerd have put together on ‘Delirium’ is a memorable spin with the right attitude conveyed. If you’ve got me on board for a doofus Anthrax-assed (er, “Poison Was the Cure”-assed?) song like “Dead in a Shed” you know you’re killing it on some cosmically satisfying basal level. The only point where I was a little confused was the melodic thrasher “Illuminated Truth” which felt like it could’ve been handed off to compatriots Traveler instead. Beyond that track I was always up for another spin of ‘Delirium’, never tiring of its big n’ yowling personality. Varied and impactful percussion, shredding abandon, and howling lunacy with a sneering middle finger thrown in here and there all add up to a good time and a surprisingly high recommendation on my end.

Attribution: https://grizzlybutts.com/2020/01/15/hazzerd-delirium-2020-review/