LAZARUS A.D.

‘The Onslaught’ is an encouraging debut album from Wisconsin 4-piece band Lazarus AD. Their sound, whilst being firmly rooted in old school thrash territory with early Slayer and very early Metallica coming across as major influences, does combine a more modern edge and attitude. The intro to opening track ‘Last Breath’ is quite excellent and makes for a strong start to the album. The guitar work of Dan Gapen and Alex Lackner is clear, powerful and impressive with the consistently stunning riffs being the album's real strength. This is clearly evident in tracks such as ‘Thou Shall Not Fear’, the superb ‘Revolution’, ‘Rebirth’, ‘Lust’, ‘Every Word Unheard’ and ‘Who I Really Am’. The songs generally feature some tight, interesting and effortless time changes that never affect the overall flow and momentum. ‘Absolute Power’ has a slower grinding feel to it, which makes it stand out as being a little different. Although the album has been recorded well and the band's performance is proficient throughout, the good, solid songs do lack variety, which lets it down in places. In spite of this, ‘The Onslaught’ shows much promise and is definitely an album that old school thrash fans should check out.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Metal Blade Records

Album

THE ONSLAUGHT

Review by Dave Crewe

RUNNING TIME:

43:19

RELEASE DATE:

2nd March 2009

TRACK LISTING

1) Last Breath
2) Thou Shall Not Fear
3) Damnation For The Weak
4) Absolute Power
5) Revolution
6) Rebirth
7) Lust
8) Forged In Blood
9) Every Word Unheard
10) Who I Really Am

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

USA

"Their sound, whilst being firmly rooted in old school thrash territory...does combine a more modern edge and attitude."