Code of Violence

“Code of Violence or Riot of Violence?” is a question that will pass the lips of many fans of veteran thrash if they come across Americans Nocturnal Fear. NF are giving modern thrash a pulse and spark in the style of the mid-eighties German bands (Kreator, Destruciton and Sodom), much like Municipal Waste have done in the style of Nuclear Assault, Cryptic Slaughter and D.R.I.

This is blatant worship, but done well and highly enjoyable. It definitely avoids the pothole of bland cloning and instead is an embrace of a sound pioneered long ago. Aside from influences, this is plain and simple great thrash. And anyway this isn’t even derivative. There are close nods yes, but the impetus isn’t all Germanic, the scream at the end of “Line Of Fire” is like “Burning of Sodom” by fellow Americans Dark Angel.

A weakness for death metal amongst the founders of NF must be prevalent as the evil shines through at times, e.g. “Rotting In Hell,” just showing this lust for speed and heaviness is a suitable mindset to create anus-splitting thrash.

I’m never going to burn my copy of Pleasure To Kill or Persecution Mania just because a new band like Nocturnal Fear comes along. The old arguments stand true here as well, if this is going to get more riff-hungry kids into Kreator, Sodom and Destruction, then what is the problem?

Order the neck brace now to save disappointment and permanent injury at a later date.Sloppiness is the order of the day, leaving focus on rip-roaring tunes which are reminiscent of the DIY attitude of the original wave of 80’s thrash. Well produced, not overindulgent, never boring.

Nocturnal Fear is an American thrash metal band that’s been plying their trade since 2000. Code of Violence is the bands third full length.

The album starts with Code of Violence and with its Slayer meets Kreator vibe it’s pretty obvious that these boys mean business. The band plays a particularly vicious and energetic brand of thrash. Not a lot of attention is paid to the production and the sound is refreshingly old school. The songs are almost all uniformly good. Sure, there’s plenty of namedropping in these songs. You can pick out the influences of this band and they range from your usual suspects of Slayer, Exodus and Kreator all the way to Sodom, some old Metallica and even early Iced Earth. It’s all wrapped up in some deft thrash songwriting with songs that never overstay their welcome.

Stand out tracks include the riotous opening track Code of Violence, Rising Hatred which sounds like a classic Bay Area tune complete with some razor sharp riffing, Out for Revenge with its time changes and only soft moment on the album and the superb Flamethrower Holocaust with its early Metallica meets early Iced Earth sound. The vocalist sounds a bit like Mille Petrozza and that helps increase the aggressiveness of these songs. There are times during this album when the band comes a bit too close to plagiarism for my comfort. The main riff on Code of Violence is pure Slayer worship and there are other moments on this album that sound a bit too close to classic bands. Still, there’s never a case of outright plagiarism like some other bands that are a part of this scene and Code of Violence is a fun album that manages to engage the listener for the duration of the 43 odd minutes.

I suppose the problem with this whole thrash revival is that it’s basically a bunch of bands that are going back to a sound and trying their best to recreate it. There’s nothing new being done here and that is the point of this whole scene. Considering that, Nocturnal Fear does a bang up job on Code of Violence. The songs are derivative but they also pack a mean punch. It’s fast, aggressive and harks back to the glory days of thrash while managing to sound relevant.

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com