Review: Reanimator – Horns Up

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When I saw this drop into my inbox I gave a little metallic “squee”. Hull-based 1980’s/90’s classic thrash band Re-animator, reformed a couple of years back and playing Wildfire have a new album out!

Oh… no. This is Quebec-based Reanimator (without the hyphen) who formed in 2005 and who currently have one full album available – 2009’s Ignorance is No Excuse. After splitting up in 2011, they got back together a year later, released an EP and here we are with Horns Up ready to launch on June 19th.

Go on, then. I’ll give it a listen. But be warned, I’m disappointed in the similar name and them not being who I… oh. Oh. Hang on.

This is good.

Reanimator are also a thrash band, but a very different one from Re-animator. They have a more “chunky” sound compared to the older band’s more basic, stripped down tones. They also seem to have gone with the more oddball song titles and slightly less serious approach (think early Exodus) but this doesn’t mean they’ve held back in terms of quality or attitude.

Horns Up is a great album, and I’m prepared to forgive them (and their PR!) for raising my hopes… as they’ve not had a reason to plummet. It might not be the band I hoped for, but it’s certainly the kind of album I was expecting.

This is a simple, non-stop, pounding, thrashing metal album. It’s how thrash has always been played and how it should continue to be played. No slow intros, no clever bits, no token ballads. Just balls-out, head-pounding, finger-shredding fury. Hell, the only pauses for breath you get are between the tracks.

Good as the whole album is, I think it’s the first track that does it for me. “Electric Circle Pit” is Reanimator’s “Toxic Waltz”.  A call to arms for all thrash fans to engage in the hell that is the circle pit. That’s not to say that the rest of the album is a let-down. They’ve launched with the strongest and catchiest track, but the other eight are anything but weak.

“The Abominautor” (see below) pounds, but even it is blasted to dust with the ferocity of “The Mosh Master” which makes me think of early (and I’m talking Fistful of Metal) Anthrax.

The key thing is that I really enjoyed this album. With so many of the classic bands testing different waters and, as a result, often moving away from that archetypal sound it’s is left to newer bands to carry the flag for the older style. Reanimator do that with aplomb.

Now, all I need is a festival with Animator, Reanimator and Re-animator on the same bill. We’re two thirds of the way there later this month…

Track listing:

  1. Electric Circle Pit
  2. Rush for the Mosh
  3. Tempted by Deviance
  4. Thieves of Society
  5. The Abominautor
  6. The Mosh Master
  7. Still Sick
  8. Off With Their Heads
  9. Mock a Mockingbird

Reanimator: facebook | twitter | youtube | bandcamp | bigcartel

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