One of thrash’s best qualities is how little it cares for what’s considered ‘cool’ or trendy, instead cleaving to its ethos of denim’n’leather-clad warp-speed riffs. HELLRIPPER embody that spirit with their first-wave black metal-infused speed, as if Motörhead were fed a steady diet of Venom. Devilishly fast cuts like Goat Vomit Nightmare are delivered with grins plastered across faces, as the crowd goes wild. Hell’s Rock ’n’ Roll, indeed. The opening wail of WARBRINGER’s Firepower Kills says all it needs to as within seconds the front of the room is caught in a mosh. You can practically hear the motorbike engines roar as The Black Hand Reaches Out thrashes and grooves. Vocalist John Kevill towers over both the crowd and his bandmates, commanding the gathered throng into ever faster pits. There are no props, no gimmicks; just rampaging thrash come to crush all before it. True to form, the momentum barely lets up bar a mid-set guitar solo they keep mercifully short, which the fans lap up. Almost 20 years into their career, Warbringer are still doing exactly that: delivering a blistering, no-frills barrage of pure, high-octane thrash.
WILL MARSHALL