This year saw us, at kvltsite, unanimously drooling at Dublin Death Patrol. A little later, the Swedish tip-of-the-hat to both the kraut and the bay area thrash scene called Blood Tsunami made us sit up and take notice but to our disappointment, didn't really stay too long in our players. Also if you want more proof, just do a check on the number of thrash metal albums that have been covered in our short four month long occupancy on the interweb. Point being, thrash metal is good. That's something we all agree upon here more than anything else and we get extra kicked when there's a new thrash album out.

So when the folks at Peacedogman.com pointed me to this new California based thrash metal band called Fueled by Fire and also had the keywords Exodus, Hirax and Maiden in the review, I immediately had to check this out.

The band, consisting of Gio on vocals and guitars, Rick on guitars, Anthony on Bass and Carlos on Drums, is living 1982 including the tight denim, the leather and the sneakers and having an absolute blast doing that. I mean, if there ever existed a Reenactment Society for music, these guys will have lifetime membership there representing the glorious early 80s underground.

Exodus is indeed the main influence here and it's good to see a thrash band influenced by them for a change. (We've had enough of Slayer clones for starters.) You even have Gio sounding a lot like an awesomely drunken Paul Balloff. The riffing and songwriting too, safely hover around some of the tricks that Exodus and the other early Bay Area thrashers employed back then. Your standard early 80s asskickery - raw and in your face with great speed picked riffs. The band also recalls some of the finer moments of the preceding NWOBHM style riffs and even incorporating a couple of sweet harmonies. Guitar solos in general are wild, manic and sloppy but not always in a good way, and this is one thing that's detrimental about this album to me. More Holt-Hunolt worship would've probably helped.

My favourite tracks (at the moment) are Thrash is Back, Dreams of Terror, Chaotic Punishment and the title track. This album also includes Massive Execution - a corny acoustic intro of Bouree leading into a predictable big distorted E and the superfast classic thrash metal worship which you can't help but dig with a huge grin on your face.

Definitely check out Spread the Fire if the idea behind a new band playing derivative thrash floats your boat. Damn cool production too.

Year of Release: 2007

Label: Nuclear Blast

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