When a band decide to name their album Ride The Apocalypse, you can be pretty damn sure of what they’re about to unleash upon you. And, when that same band have been together for almost thirty years, it’s an absolute triumph that they can remain so relevant whilst simultaneously channelling the classic hardcore and thrash sounds of the 80’s. In short, Vitamin X aren’t here to make you cross your arms and thoughtfully scratch your beard…..they’re here to kick you in the nuts, pour a warm beer over your head and throw you into the circle pit.
This is a band that has spent more than two decades refining a very specific recipe of crossover thrash that’s fast, sarcastic, political and just chaotic enough to feel genuinely dangerous. Emerging alongside the wave of 2000’s thrash revival bands like Municipal Waste and Wolfbrigade, Vitamin X successfully built their reputation on breakneck speed and an ability to inject a humour that was rarely seen in Hardcore at the time.
Let’s be clear, Vitamin X aren’t redefining their sound here, but what they are doing is distilling their very essence down into a pungent concoction of sweaty, greasy two-minute ragers that are so lean they could slip between the cracks of a basement floor. It’s music that’s been reduced to it’s most volatile ingredients: lightning paced guitar riffs, drums that are being hit so hard they could file a lawsuit, and vocals spat with the kind of obnoxious urgency that suggest the whole writhing machine may collapse if it slows down for even a second.
Not only do the Amsterdam-based lunatics manage to achieve all of this in a seemingly effortless manner, but they also manage to cram a surprising amount of variety into these 17 songs. ‘Sociopath’ swings perfectly between the lightning riffage of thrash and the stomping intensity of hardcore; ‘Unleash The Wolves’ and ‘Siren’s Call’ inject a slightly darker atmosphere (like storm clouds forming over the cracked concrete of your local skate park); and ‘Symphony Of Doom’ is a tongue-in-cheek soundtrack to the end of the world that wouldn’t fail to plaster a smile across the face of even the most serious of doomsday preppers.
This is seventeen tracks…barely half an hour…and not a single second wasted!! Like a bottle of strong liquor, it burns going down and leaves you’re head spinning when it’s over! If this is truly what the apocalypse sounds like, then, what the hell are we waiting for?!
Best Paired with – A hefty chunk of concrete, a well used spittoon and some plasters for your shins.
Reviewed by Bryn.
Vitamin X – Ride The Apocalpyse Is Out now on Svart Records.
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