Crypsis - Choir For The Carrion

Crypsis are a thrash metal band from Brighton, UK. I first encountered them when they played at the Brightona bike rally last year with my band Funeral Hag. Their style is pure oldschool European thrash metal, in the vein of Kreator and Sodom, though the vocals really remind me of Death! They have supported such mighty thrash bands as Gama Bomb and Death Angel (as did Funeral Hag :D).

Choir For The Carrion is their first release aside from a three track demo in 2009, and the sound on this is much more polished. You can grab the EP for free from their Bandcamp page, or there is now a CD version available for purchase. The CD launch party is taking place tonight at the Prince Albert in Brighton, so head on down for some great Brighton thrash if you can!

Various formats including 320Kbps MP3 and FLAC from Bandcamp

Crypsis on Myspace

Annihilator - Total Annihilation

Annihilator have been on of my favourite bands for years, ever since I picked up their King Of The Kill album from the £1 bin at Our Price records in my hometown of Fleet. Yes, it was that long ago the Our Price was still called Our Price, before it became the ill-fated, stock-free Virgin V-Shop (which was possibly the most retarded idea ever, why go to a shop where you have to order everything off the internet if you can order it off the internet from home and it'll cost less?).

Anyways, Annihilator are an oldschool thrash band from Canada. Their older stuff was quite traditional thrash but with some quirky/comedy moments and some really odd riffs thrown in. I'd still say Annihilator main man Jeff Waters is one of my favourite guitarists, perhaps 2nd only to the mighty Jeff Loomis of Nevermore. Hopefully one day their powers will combine in a dual Jeff shred attack, but anyways I digress.

Annihilator have had a lot of different lineups over the last 26 years, with Waters remaining the only constant member. The most noticeable of these have been the succession of vocalists. My personal favourite was Joe Comeau who sang on the Carnival Diablos and Waking The Fury albums. I was not keen on current vocalist Dave Padden at first, though his style has grown on me over the last 4 albums (well 3 of them anyways, didn't get on with Metal at all!).

Today's offering is a best of type compilation Annihilator have recently released through Earache Records for free download. There is a good mix of tracks from throughout most of their career, though there seems to be a lack of tracks from their first few albums, perhaps due to licensing issues with Roadrunner Records who released them originally. Stand out tracks for me are Ultra Motion, Battered and King Of The Kill. Slightly disappointed none of my favourite Annihilator tracks are on there (Kraf Dinner, The Perfect Virus, Evil Appetite (Don't Bother Me), Annihilator (King of the Kill version), Knight Jumps Queen), but I do always have obscure tastes.

320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare (requires email address for download)

Annihilator on Myspace
Annihilator official site

FDISK - Connection Reset By Satan

As any regular readers will know, I'm rather into my nerdcore hip-hop due to my love of hip-hop and unashamed geekery. Anyways, for a long time I've toyed with the idea of starting a nerdcore metal band. Well, it seems that FDISK have rather beaten me to it! As one might guess from the name (well, if one was nerdy enough), they're a computer geekery inspired thrash metal band from LA. I think they must have added my band Funeral Hag on Myspazz over the weekend when I was sick and ignoring the internets as they appeared in our friends list, and of course I couldn't resist checking them out! The tunes aren't bad and the lyrics are most amusing, though the demo is a little unpolished. Definitely worth checking out though, especially if you, like me, are of a somewhat geeky pursuasion.

~200Kbps VBR MP3 via HTTP from Linkline.com
~200Kbps VBR MP3 via HTTP from Megaupload.com

FDISK on Myspace

Gama Bomb - Tales From The Grave In Space

Gama Bomb are fucking awesome! They're a thrash band from Ireland who love to thrash it out in a comedy fashion. They are so awesome that they've decided to give away their latest album for free. I don't really know what else to say about this album than that it's fucking awesome. Seriously. So go download it now, and go see them on tour. They're playing at the Engine Rooms in Brighton, amongst other places of course, on the 10th of November along with local thrashers Crypsis and tickets are only £6.50! So, go see Gama Bomb, download their album and buy their stuff!

320Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare

Gama Bomb at Myspace
Earache Records at Myspace
Earache Records Official Website

The Hard Way - 2009 Demo

The Hard Way is a hardcore band from Brighton, England, formed in 2009. Beyond this I can't really say much as there ain't much info about them on Last.FM or Myspazz. Not normally that into my Hardcore, but these guys are pretty thrashy as hardcore goes. They rather remind me of SSS in fact! They've kindly posted their demo online for free, so check them out. If you like 'em, go see 'em at Greenhouse Effect in Brighton. I will certainly do my best to be there.

160Kbps MP3s Via HTTP from Megaupload

The Hard Way at Myspace
The Hard Way at Blogspot

Monsterworks - Spacial Operations

Monsterworks are a metal band originally from Palmerston North/Wellington, New Zealand and formed in 1996 and reformed in London in 2003. They mix a number of metal styles to form a highly technical breed of progressive metal, including elements of thrash, death and power metal. Information on them seems to be quite sparse, though their Encyclopaedia Metallum page discography lists 5 full length albums they have under their belts!

Spacial Operations is their 2007 offering, available for free from their website http://www.supermetal.net. It is one of those rare concept albums that has a sci-fi theme rather than fantasy, improves its standing in my eyes no end, even before listening to it! I've always been more of a sci-fi fan than fantasy, though most metallers seem to feel the other way. Having only found a few examples of sci-fi themed metal (Fear Factory's Obsolete and Iron Savior amongst others), I am always eager to discover more.

If you like any kind of metal, I'd thoroughly recommend downloading Spacial Operations. It's quite a varied album with some great riffs and beautiful guitar work, and of course it's free!

160Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Supermetal.net

Monsterworks Official Site
Monsterworks at Myspace

Hospital Of Death - Beer, Bitches, Blood

Hospital of Death are a heavy metal band from Cheshire in the UK. They combine oldschool NWOBHM vocals and riffs with the speed and energy of the new-wave of thrash metal. Their debut album, Beer, Bitches, Blood, was allegedly 13 years in the making (though the band split up for 12 of those years). Originally formed to play their high school graduation party, the band promptly disbanded. However, they reformed at a band reunion party in 2006 and since then have been on a neverending mission to induce drinking and partying in all who listen to their music.

The album itself is a joyous celebration of thrash and NWOBHM, with tongue thoroughly in cheek throughout. From the opening track Enter The Hospital Of Death, a metal version of the Casualty theme tune, to the final track White The Lightning, this is a great metal album in a traditional vein that doesn't take itself too seriously. And of course, any album that features a cover of Lion's theme for Transformers The Movie could not fail to be awesome!

The album is available for free online from various sources.

160Kbps MP3 via .torrent for the album at Mininova
160Kbps MP3 via HTTP download from Mediafire
128Kbps MP3 via Last.FM, streaming or individual track downloads

If you really like them, you can buy a copy off the band in two different forms from their Myspace page. The first is the Official Band Bootleg version, consisting of the album recording on CD-R in best quality in a PVC wallet with cover & flyers, £1.00 delivered in the UK, £2.00 worldwide. The second is the Bands Own Copies version, an album recording on lightscribe CD-R (it has stuff on the front) at the best quality in a jewel case with all glossy covers, which apparently takes 2 hours to make! My copy arrived this morning, and I have to say it's well worth the princely sum of £3.00 that I paid for it.

HOD at Myspace