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ONSLAUGHT "Origins Of Aggression"
ONSLAUGHT "Origins Of Aggression"
By Dr. Abner Mality
Looks like it's time for ONSLAUGHT to jump on the "remake and covers" bandwagon. Well. they've got as much right to do it as any other band. The tricky thing with these kind of albums is making sure your remakes of old classics are just as good if not better than the originals. And you also need to put your own stamp on cover tunes. Otherwise, you're just karaoke.
This is a two album set and album one is re-recorded versions of cuts from the first three ONSLAUGHT albums. I can already tell you that the original versions were better. Cuts from the classic debut "Power From Hell" lack the gloomy oldschool murk that made songs like "Angels of Death" and "Power From Hell" so iconic. The dry and raspy vocals of Dave Garnett just don't suit the songs and neither does the sandpaper-ish production. That production also hurts the more streamlined thrashers from "The Force". "Let There Be Death" and "Metal Forces" in their first incarnation sounded like they were forged in steel...loud, proud and clear. Garnett's vocals fit these songs a bit better but I will always hear Sy Keeler singing them. These covers aren't bad by any stretch, but they don't match the originals and they don't add anything new.
Oddly enough, the remakes of tunes from "In Search Of Sanity"...a controversial "commercialized" album for ONSLAUGHT...fare best of all. The title track and "Shellshock" still have that dry production but the tunes are rougher and more aggressive. Dave Garnett can't match the late great Steve Grimmet for melody, but he adapts best of all to these cuts.
Second album features covers from the punk and metal bands that influenced ONSLAUGHT (and their predecessor band, THE VARUKERS). I hate to tell you, but you're never going to hear a version of "Holiday In Cambodia" or "State Violence State Control" better than the ones by DEAD KENNEDYS and DISCHARGE. That's just the way it is. As for SABBATH's "War Pigs", that's a song that never needs to be covered again. By anyone!
The PRIEST cover of "Freewheel Burnin'" is surprisingly better than I thought it would be and many of the other tunes are simple, effective punk rock covers of tracks by SEX PISTOLS, THE EXPLOITED and U.K. SUBS. Nothing wrong with any of them and they give insight into ONSLAUGHT's influences, but this album is not really essential and is basically a placeholder until the band's next album of original material comes out.
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