Alcoholic Rites "Metal Alcoholico-Destructivo" 7"

Oh, look, they have a song called "Cirrosis," which I'm assuming is south of the border speak for "cirrhosis," how appropriate for me. Well, I can't really read the language, but I recognize some of the words from the lyrics, "muerte" is death, and I see "violence,""brutal," "irreversible brutal" or something. Yeah, this isn't making me feel any better about my illness. Anyway, this band is great, def one of my favorite black thrash acts. I love Iron Bonehead's name, it's so accurate. This is such bonehead music. Just tapping your feet to the music, makes you feel like a brainless metalhead, and I mean that in the best way possible. This is a fun, energetic, killer band. Yeah, I wish I didn't actually HAVE cirrhosis so I could listen to this while drinking, because with thrash that's the intention, but oh well, I'm still having a good time.

Abigail / Fastkill "Far East Necromancers" 7"

Abigail has always been a mixed bag for me, they're blacker than most thrash bands but not as black as most black thrash bands. Did that come out right? On this record they are def on the even less blacker side than they normally are, but that's OK because they really fucking shred it! Boosted by a session guitarist to take care of leads, this record is a bit riffier than typical Abigail, and I think it works really well. The solos are fucking sailing, the main riffs on the two songs kill, and they use leading tones to get back and forth from verse to chorus, which strangely lots of black thrash bands forget about. The second song, "Prophecy of the Evening Star," sounds like they were listening to "2 Minutes to Midnight" right before they wrote it, you'll know what I mean when you hear it. Fastkill, one of my favorite non-black thrash bands, bring more Japanesiness to the table on the record, but sadly with only one original song (the second is an Agent Steel cover). I have to say I don't really like Fastkill's track on this record as much as on their LPs. Actually it's about the same quality as their second LP but much much less technical, it's about as technical as the first LP, but it just doesn't have the same relentless killer punk magic of "Infernal Thrashing Holocaust." Yeah, Abigail really took the lead on this one.