ASYLUM

ASYLUM “Tyrannicide”

By Dr. Abner Mality

Hailing from the same wastelands that spawned Lord Humongous and Immortan Joe are ASYLUM and these Aussie thrashers don’t fuck around. This album is balls out and heads down all the way, delivering a pure form of thrash that doesn’t try to incorporate melody or advanced composition. It’s quite admirable in that way and if you’re looking for speed and anger, this will provide it.

ASYLUM’s style is the harder and heavier end of the Bay Area style, in the manner of early EXODUS and lesser known lights like DEFIANCE. I also get a good whiff of KREATOR in their “Terrible Certainty” period and of course, what would any Aussie thrash band be without a touch of MORTAL SIN to them? “Eternal Violence” gets the (wrecking) ball rolling with a fast, mean kick. And the band rarely lets up from there. No ballads at all and only on “Imminent Decay” and the title track is there any hint of slower, chunkier riffs.

That kind of brings up the one drawback to ASYLUM, in that their music is a bit monochrome and tracks tend to sound alike. Yet the other side of the coin is that “Tyrannicide” just doesn’t do anything but thrash. Their simple devotion to that art is rather admirable in this day and age.

ASYLUM