Rebel Wizard : "the Warning of One".

I am still not clear on what negative metal is . Apparently if you are going off of what this Australian band throws down , it  means you shift between genres but maintain some nasty higher pitched black metal like vocals. I guess if Deafheaven was more into Judas Priest the results might be similar. The first song is slower and more melodic than "One I Know" which is more of a trash tone. In both cases the guitar parts are strong. There is more of a classic metal harmony on the second song. The production is interesting and pretty solid . It has a classic metal tone ( Think "Ride the Lightning") but the vocals make it more aggressive. There sneer and scowls are so feral you can't really make out the lyrics.Sometimes the vocals even sound like Gollum throwing a temper tantrum. By the time they get to the thirds song it is clear that thrash is a larger influence than any other they might try to claim.

Power metal has been a genre thrown around with these guys , and I just don't hear. Are there some big epic riffs, sure but thrash had big epic riffs like this back in the early 80s . These guys just dig back far enough into the hallowed halls of metal to pull from more obscure roots than their peers might be pulling from these days. The drummer doesn't really wow me until the last song. The end result is they roll a double bass avalanche over you. I can hear how these guys are doing a better job of tackling what a band like Death of Kings wants to do and are doing it better. I think the difference is these guys are not influenced by death metal, they are just taking the thrash thing to it's heaviest extreme.

This album surprised me and these guys delivered the goods with much more authority than I might have expected going into this. While you might call this blackened thrash, it's good solid metal. Straight forward , but done with enough groove to keep you locked into it. I'll give this album an 8.5, though I doubt I will really crave multiple listens to this unless I go through a real angry phase where I need something that is this mean to kick me in the balls.