By Jim Rowland
Canada certainly produced its fair share of great metal bands in the 80s. Perhaps one that fell under the radar a little more was Aggression, right there in the thick of the speed/thrash metal golden era of the mid to late 80s. They could have been up there with the more established names but, by the band’s own admission ‘destructive substance abuse problems, legal and criminal matters combined with reckless abandon’ led to their downfall by 1989. They’ve been together again since 2014 with original frontman Denis ‘Sasquatch’ Barthe at the helm of a new line up, and now they unleash a brand new six-track EP ‘Field Of Nightmares’, following up on 2018’s brilliantly titled album ‘Feels Like Punk, Sounds Like Thrash’.
In reality, ‘Field Of Nightmares’ is a four track EP with the eerie opening of ‘Filtering Doom’ and even eerier closing of ‘Gambolling With the Undead’ making up the numbers. Sandwiched in the middle are four blistering slices of prime quality old school thrash, tight and precise, oozing great speedy riffs, thundering rhythms and snarling punk-infused attitude. ‘Poisonous Potion’ and ‘Dripping Flesh’ are thrash belters loosely in the vein of earlier Slayer, ‘Satanic Angel Holy Devil’ is another belter that alternated between fast and breakneck speed, whilst the jaw-dropping ‘Possessed by Dawn’ dispenses with the fast to concentrate purely on the breakneck speed from start to finish.
The title of the aforementioned ‘Feels Like Punk, Sounds Like Thrash’ album sums Aggression up well. This is brutal old school thrash metal with a punk snarl delivered to the highest standard. In many ways it reminds me of Germany’s Exumer, another great punk-infused thrash band whose career followed a very similar trajectory. If old school, fast and furious thrash metal is your bag, then this is a must to check out, and I for one will definitely be checking them out in more detail. A full album on Xtreem is set to follow next year.
- ‘Field of Nightmares’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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