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WHIPSTRIKER “Cry Of Extinction”
WHIPSTRIKER “Cry Of Extinction”
By Dr. Abner Mality
If you lived through the 80’s metal explosion, you will know when you hear something authentic that recalls the wild spirit of those times. Not just a rote recreation of riffs and melodies, but a band that really recalls the true vibe and feeling of 80’s underground metal.
Such a band is WHIPSTRIKER from South America, a continent that seems to touch that old spirit even more than Europe itself. When you sound like you actually come from 1985, you know you’ve done your job. It took me a little bit to get into WHIPSTRIKER because the sound is so raw and the vocals are odd. But “Cry of Extinction” slowly sinks into your bones and by the time the epic “Military Scum” concludes, you feel like you’ve just taken a trip in the TARDIS to a metal dive bar in Amsterdam circa 1986.
The band do a cover of DESTRUCTION's “Satan’s Vengeance” here and that gives a good idea of what kind of sound they are aiming for. But there are a lot of bands trying to get that old German thrash sound these days and WHIPSTRIKER achieves this on a deeper level. There’s more than worship of the “usual suspects” like DESTRUCTION, SODOM, KREATOR going on...you can hear the touch of more obscure bands like MINOTAUR, VECTOM, NECRONOMICON and the mighty CYCLONE happening as well. Something about the “curly” riffs you hear on the chorus of the title track makes your spine tingle.
The vocals at first were an obstacle for me. They are a kind of slurred, pained sounding and done with virtually no variation across the album. It’s kind of like a more primitive version of DECEASED’s King Fowley. But the more you hear them, the more they start to make sense. They fit WHIPSTRIKER to a T and I can’t imagine anybody different doing them.
If one cut sums up the magic of what WHIPSTRIKER doe here, it would be the awesome riff-fest of “WWVI”. This is a headbanger’s delight that just oozes power...you just don’t hear stuff like this anymore! The aforementioned “Military Scum” is also a highlight...clocking in at over 10 minutes, but not a dull moment in any of it! But with the exception of the useless intro track, any song here has its strong moments! “Cry of Extinction” is not just a good metal abum, it’s like a trip back to the glory days!
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