What started as a studio project in 1999 for guitarist/vocalist Joel Grind is now Portland’s Toxic Holocaust, a band that has evolved over the past 14 years into an established three-piece. Specialising in the type of thrash metal that remains untouched by the hand of commercialism, and that could probably kill your lawn while it’s at it, this is the genre at its most brutal and unapologetic.
While their new LP, Chemistry Of Consciousness, is by no means an awful album or a blight on the band’s name, unfortunately it feels like they are treading water and/or running short of ideas in regards to how to move the sonic attack and dynamics of the band forward.
This can always be something of a double-edged sword in music. Look at AC/DC and The Ramones, for example. Many believe that both acts pretty much made careers out of sticking to the same sound for a couple of decades. Sure, fans lap it up. However, listening to the newbie from Toxic Holocaust, one feels like they’ve been here before.
Lyrically, Chemistry Of Consciousness also comes off as a bit ‘teenager in his bedroom, pissed off with the world’. While this may be the drawing card for a lot of their fans, there is no real lyrical evolution from the trio’s previous releases.
It doesn’t totally go there, but Chemistry Of Consciousness skates very close to the most heinous of crimes in music, which is to play it too safe.
Listed to ‘Acid Fuzz’ from Chemistry Of Consciousness here:
