Idiocratic greed sustained through the chaos created by brutally mediocre men and their regimes the world over serves as the exact right catalyst for Leopoldina, Brazil-based thrash metal quartet DEATHRAISER to return with a sophomore full-length album nearly a decade and a half beyond their last act of violent aggression. Once more piling into the fray for the sake of their righteous, brutal command of the riff ‘Forged in Hatred‘ reflects a combination of sub-genre obsessed classicism and timely reactivity as these folks grind through ~34 minutes of sublimely chainsawed-out thrash metal built on the still-reeking corpse of the late 80’s. No gimmickry, no out of touch politico, and no real melodic intent serve to interrupt their corrosive thread here making this a real head-down ripper worth diving into if so inclined.

Deathraiser formed as Mercilless back in 2006 releasing a couple of demos, most notably ‘Possessed by Thrash‘ (2007) and a few split releases a couple of years later before changing their name. While playing ‘old school’ thrash metal inspired sounds in the late 2000’s wasn’t uncommon in the slightest the band’s focus on aggression unique to the late 80’s was admirable from their earliest efforts, a sound which was clearly inspired by circa ’86 Dark Angel, Kreator and of course classic Brazilian thrashers, even going as far as to name themselves after a classic Attomica piece. The culmination of said inspiration would be the well-regarded ‘Violent Aggression‘ (2011) a record which fully crushes and shreds through its riff-obsessed action at obnoxious speed without resorting to outright death-thrashing action. That level of aggression (sic) would lead to comparisons to bands like Hypnosia, Morbid Saint (see: “One Step to the Grave“) and Besieged at the time and this’d made well enough sense as ‘old school’ coded action indebted to obviate influences. While many enjoyed that record it’d appeared to be a one-off, a goal achieved and left alone for the last fifteen years.

Call it a comeback? Yeah, it fits in this case. Much like the return of Violator last year Deathraiser don’t necessarily sound exactly the same as they did back in 2011 as they shed the thin and chaotic noise of their debut but they do still generally sound like themselves and bear the exact same taste. Production values of course have a big effect on this as they’re thickened overall: Guitar tones are beefed and the bass guitar tone is now boss-heavy in order to suit a groove driven approach to the riff but the quartet’ve generally upheld the level of intensity one’d want from a second album so many years later. Rather than incorporate modern trendiness available to thrash or change their tune entirely ‘Forged in Hatred‘ is yet resolutely ‘old school’ in its action and writ to the standard of the late 80’s/early 90’s underground thrash metal standard. If anything their work kinda hits more like ‘Extreme Hatred‘ this time around and this is entirely appropriate for these folk’s legacy.

The groovier, bullied-up aggression available to Deathraiser‘s return should be made clear enough within the opener (“Severe Atrocity”) but it’ll hit hardest via the ‘Beneath the Remains‘-coded chop of “Everything Dies”, one of the more memorable pieces on Side A per its attack and ever-evolving gait. The way that song drives headlong into equally strong follow-up “Corporation Parasite” was enough to get me on board with ‘Forged in Hatred‘ outright, you could tell they were only going to shred through riffs for the remainder of the record and certainly did; While this isn’t going to be a glossy, pompous stadium thrash record for the masses and they’ve not really pulled in any outright impressive lead guitar function for this record per my own taste there isn’t a “miss” amongst the lot as each piece generally finds its reference point of inspiration (which’ll be obvious to old heads) yet ultimately reads as varietal camaraderie amongst brutal thrash obsessives, such as myself.

Time has only made Deathraiser a more formidable band and this album smokes front to back as a result of their unified vision. Without throwing any sort of wrench or misplay onto the killing field ‘Forged in Hatred‘ is clearly made for the ‘old school’ thrash metal lifer looking for this brand of violence and in this sense it delivers the real thing. More important to longtime fans the album retains the grave reactionary character the band’d concieved two decades ago and makes sense when set aside a copy of ‘Violent Aggression‘ so many years later. Of course I could go on about how much the rhythm section improved in the meantime, point out some brilliant bass guitar work throughout, and name-drop several more elite bands but the folks who’ll pay this one mind already understand where these folks are coming from and only just want more. Count me among the hordes as I’d found myself returning to this album for the steadily intensifying, riff-obsessed tunneling found within. A high recommendation.

---