All it’d taken was a million metric tons of sulfuric smoke carried by the sky-scraping reach of five concurrently bursting pillars of magma to cast a twenty mile plume of ashen fire over the entire realm of humanity, enough to blanket poisonous ash across the planet and nearly end all (human) life. A nuclear winter that’d suffocated all down to horrifying genetic bottleneck, with numbers reduced to mere thousands and fitness rattled for generations, the near-extinction of humanity seventy-thousand years ago by way of an supereruption event serves as the backdrop for this fit-for-fighting debut full-length album from Santiago, Chile-based blackened thrash metal quartet MAYHEMIC. As if gleefully day-dreaming of the most brutal-as-possible, horrifying end for all humanity these folks channel the horror of primal man faced with cataclysmic events into morbid ‘old school’ thrash metal given a black metal rasp. Using a specific set of late 80’s style niche as key inspiration for ‘Toba‘ and its sound we find this album exactly along their path as intended, a point where primal death and black metal movements were born in the thrash metal underground where their work comes from astute diviners, ghoulish devourers treading the path of old bones toward a new lease on upper Pleistocene-level riffcraft, a feat which continues to deliver its thrilling accost time after time, spin after spin.

Mayhemic formed circa 2018 presumably by way of main songwriter and (then) drummer Noctumbra who cut his teeth as lead guitarist/vocalist in Parkcrest in the early 2010’s and has helped out or joined many reputable bands since (Hellish, Critical Defiance, et al.) but in this band he’d notably been the drummer to start, the co-vocalist since 2020 and now serves as the co-vocalist/co-guitarist with Doom since 2022 when they’d added members of Repulsic and Deviants alongside the current drummer for many great Chilean thrash bands (Evil Madness, Dekapited, Ripper). Rather than line those crisscrossed line-up changes and revolving chairs with their discography thus far I’d suggest you’ll get the right idea about this band the moment you crack into their first demo tape (‘No Life‘, 2018) and their refinement of that late 80’s evil/extreme thrash metal ideal has escalated as folks’ve shifted to suit the demands of the material. Before we’ve even taken a listen to the rest of their discography we already know these guys are among the folks responsible for the best nowadays thrash metal being made on the planet and we can count ‘Toba‘ in as one of the finest the folks involved have managed.

So, from the first strike of the band’s aforementioned demo tape you’ll get the raw death-metallic rush of ‘Pleasure to Kill‘-era Kreator, inspired by the wave of next-level attack coming off of many bands in response circa 1987 and most all of Mayhemic‘s work speaks directly to the 1986-1989 circuit of thrash metal extremity. For their debut EP (‘Mortuary Feast of Skeletons‘, 2019) original vocalist/co-guitarist Demian (Old Souls) leaned into this rasping, quick-barked and groove cutting style as the major point of notice for the band to start where it was clear they’d spent some time with deeper cuts like Protector‘s ‘Misanthropy‘ and Merciless ‘The Awakening‘ to access the more blackened and depraved exaggerations of this style, pulling their cadence from the classics without coming too dangerously close to plagiarized riffcraft. The song that I’d suggest you -must- hear from this first official release is of course their eponymous song “Mayhemic” as for me this is one of the most essential songs from the band to date; Beyond that point the “The Last Judgement” b/w “Volcanic Blast” 7″ was the first dual (but separate) vocalist effort from the band and a more readied portent of things to come with faster ripping speeds, a kind of Possessed level of wilding guitar runs and pure violence in terms of riffs. The first ~12 or so songs from the 2018-2022 period of the band’s activity has been collected as ‘The Darkest Age‘ (2022) which I’d recommend treating as a quasi-debut in terms of its songcraft, an escalating ladder of ferocity as Mayhemic came into their own.

Who took those ideas further than anyone else back in 1987? Arguable, but the two most important connections to make in this case are probably Necrodeath‘s ‘Into the Macabre‘ and Sepultura‘s ‘Schizophrenia‘ alongside the hindsight that each band would escalate their musicianship and production values (along with Kreator) in 1989. This is where the heavier flurry of punches fly when Mayhemic sources them for some of their best songs on this album (“Triumph Portrait”) and really a bigger, heavier groove seems to suit their malevolently struck sound best, stabbing at thrash metal via patient grooves within a sometimes chaotic and kinetic showing of energy. Opener “Kollarbone Crushed Neanderthal” certainly sounds overwhelmed by its own rushing attack as it shreds through its six minute anthemic opus to kick things off and I suppose because its sound is familiar enough to start I’d fallen right into the vat of tar they’d been slinging about, immersed and touching upon the feeling of some of my favorite music of all time. Nostalgia is a dangerous thing in that regard because of course I’d gotten that feeling but let’s not suggest that this band is so squarely aimed in that direction as there are plenty enough hints of what I’d consider black/thrash via tapes like ‘December Moon‘ and ‘Anno Domini‘ which also apply here and, even moreso has they start hitting the keyboards on standout “Valley of the Thundra”, where the band’ve already begun exploring their own erratic grooves within this auld 80’s extreme thrash modus.

The aforementioned “Triumph Portrait” puts us up against a chain-link fence face first and mugs the skull with its ‘Beneath the Remains‘-muzzle pressed against the cerebellum, a crawling pusher of a song and one that capitalizes upon the momentum of the two faster, shorter songs before it to cut a deeper channel via the rhythm guitar push of it throughout. Riff-after-riff volley as burst fire to start but ultimately act in service to a familiar melody as the intensifying pace and spiraling-out leads reach their peak intensity. I’d have some frenzied excitement to share over this album if it contained even one song bearing said qualities but basically each piece on ‘Toba‘ goes in for a deeper level of rhythmic interest, develops its own voice in the process and then spreads this statement throughout the full listen, a common trait of late 80’s thrash riff obsession but you’ll find very few examples as focused as this in recent memory which aren’t either death-thrash or based out of Norway (and/or Chile.)

Men who built mountains. — I’d be fair to hear this record and find most of your thrill bears obviate roots in its dark designs as clear points of inspiration reveal. If you’re a fan of the specific niche relayed thus far you’ll get that the diction/cadence and construction of these pieces is rightfully familiar… I’d definitely agree, and suggest it is also very good, far far above average when compared to “worship” bands and so many who’ve either overproduced or underperformed thrash metal beyond 1990. The riffs are at maximum flow throughout the full listen and especially as we step onto Side B where it becomes even more clear that riffs are the major point of purpose and export of this band. “Eschatological Symphony” is that banner on blazon as they shred through its four minutes as a determined machine at a ‘Terrible Certainty‘ clip and eventually find a point of tuneful focus (around ~3:08 minutes in) which to me recalls the extended instrumental tracks you’d find on old thrash records of a certain era. “Hazardous Prowler” on the other hand develops an almost early witching metal guitar progression to help dial in some actual black metal flair/fusion in the guitar work which we find in very rare and reserved bouts.

In piecing together ‘Toba‘ carefully and then rifling off one song after another Mayhemic‘ve done well to use the adrenaline ‘fused spirit of ancient morbid thrash metal to craft their own intensity from. Despite how classicist they’ve always been on past recordings there is a circuitous bit of ‘progress’ made here in terms of composition where, nigh technical (as in tightly performed, practiced) warp-fingered training lends the band adept hand enough to begin fashioning catchier, striking grooves throughout this perfectly set ~37 minute record. In simpler terms? Most of these riffs are worth remembering but they’ve likewise they’ve become brilliant in the art of arranging songs around more than just riff-after-riff attacks; And hey not to mention the themes and general lyrics of this album which are surprisingly verbose and imaginative in how they depict ancient civilizations on the brink of cataclysm and their mythos in a fantastical way, the most clear example being “Olduvai’s Lullaby“. Of course I cannot make out every lyric without a sheet in hand but at this point the lyrics have been made available online and of course they present raw and wild ideas to dig through. Again I can’t stress enough the importance of having access to lyrics (these in particular) and how it does wonders for my own enjoyment of ‘Toba‘ in terms of seeing it as more than a cool-ass thrash record with an authentic sound.

You will know it when it hits you and more than likely it’ll be within the first listen as Mayhemic kill this debut LP front-to-back without interruption. No doubt most thrash metal aficionados these days will “get” and appreciate the band’s sound and style up front but I think it’ll take a twisted sort of thrash extremist to truly enjoy and obsess over the mechanisms and musings of this record. Though there may be enough here for both blackened thrash and death-thrash fandom to enjoy per its high rate of ideas and brutal delivery this one still feels like a major grab for classic thrash metal at the end of the day, extreme as it is. Otherwise ‘Toba‘ is especially in my lane, suited exactly to my own tastes in extreme thrash and you can factor in some key bias in the sense that I’ve named several of my ‘favorite’ records in the course of this review. I would feel comfortable setting this one up high near the top of my favorites of 2024 thus far. A very high recommendation.

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