Terror Squad (Japan) - band review

"Fuckin Pozerz are dancin' in our site! No frills! Gonna' fight tonight!"
-Terror Squad, "Disco, Bloody Disco"

In case you don't know this band...

Japan's Terror Squad fucking flat out RULE. If you haven't ever had the pleasure do yourself a favor and search out their stuff. Along with Aura Noir, they are in the elite class of modern bands playing MODERN thrash that actually create their own sound and move the genre forward. I'm the biggest thrash/speed metal fan you're going to come across, but it's a tall order for me to find a band who does something new and original or crafts their own sound and still can be considered operating strictly in that genre. There's a lot acts around these days playing straight up thrash metal, doing it well, and putting on great live shows, but as far as coming up with memorable speed metal and thrash SONGS that make me want to play them more than once or twice when I could be listening to Destruction, Holy Terror or Voivod? That is a fucking feat right there my friends. Terror Squad succeeds at those tricky tasks with an unholy, inhuman ease.

Ever since I first heard them (on the amazing and much beloved (by me) Swedish made "Headbangers Against Disco" 7 inch compilation) I just can't get enough of these guys. The catchy hooks, the raging riffs, the insane solos, the wild bass playing, the crazed drums, the red lined vocals and insane metal-head by way of Japan lyrics? It all works out into a super charged juggernaut of aggro hi-tech thrash metal band who's songs will get stuck in your head in spite of their futuristic, non traditional arrangements and the crazy, rabid, nontraditional sound Terror Squad so perfectly pull off.

Both "Chaosdragon Rising" and 1999's ultra-classic and ultra-underrated debut "The Wild Stream of Eternal Sin" are, imho, the best stuff to come out of Japan as far as metal and hc go in the last ten years, as well as flat out two of the best metal albums of the last decade.

It's a crime more people haven't heard this band! These guys rage and push thrash to the next level with a frenzied skill and a mature level of class like it's nothing. You hear, me? NOTHING! Check this shit out, pronto.