Review by Felix on April 27, 2024.

Presumably some of you had a good oracle or a professional clairvoyant at hand, but I cannot say that I expected the evolution of Holycide. The dudes have blossomed into a really strong factor in terms of thrash metal. Towards Idiocracy massacres with razor-sharp riffs, high velocity and a barking lead vocalist whose performance provides information on why the artwork lies in close proximity to some “Knarrenheinz” covers of Sodom. Thrash metal needs new blood from time to time and yes, the line-up of Holicyde does not consist of juvenile ruffians, but the music of the veterans is certainly not just a fresh breeze, but an alarming and quite devastating storm. By the way, this storm is technically staged in a nearly perfect manner. The production scores with aggressive guitars that jump into the listener’s face as if there were no tomorrow. They are the main element why Towards Idiocracy offers a very intensive listening session, although the entire mix is very well balanced.

I mentioned Sodom as a point of reference. Let me be more precise, I do not speak about their blackened early recordings and their punk period is also not before my inner eye. Holycide present pure thrash in a ferocious and vehement form. Their approach is comparable with the one that made albums like “Genesis IX” or “M-16” great. Sometimes the fury of the Spanish quintet is at the expense of a higher degree of memorable parts, but this is no big deal in view of the enormous energy and liveliness of the music. The level of fury is constantly high, the Atrophy cover fits the context of the album’s flow and the coherence and homogeneity of the material underline the artistic integrity of the protagonists. Lukewarm sequences, I promise, do not show up. Maybe sometimes it is almost too much of a good thing, one or two stoic mid-tempo parts would have made a cool contrast to the omnipresent onslaught of violent sounds. But don’t get me wrong, the album does not suffer from a lack of dynamic. The tempo just changes from fast to very fast and back.

In view of the band’s affinity for musical brutality it is almost surprising that they did not integrate some noisy solos of the “Reign In Blood” kind. Naturally, there are solos, but they follow a more conventional way – without being defensive or harmless, of course. Nevertheless, the most aggressive components are the constantly rasping, sawing, cutting and hurting guitars. In their best moments they draw the listener into the songs in a matter of seconds. The malignantly drilling guitars at the beginning of 'Remote Control' create such a moment, but the right-in-your-face beginning of the opener 'A.I. Supremacy' also shines with brutal charm. The gruff chorus of 'Angry For Nothing' is another example for a very well done part and after the 39 minutes of Towards Idiocracy there is not much shit left in my brain. Holycide have pushed the reset button very successfully and if they find a way to combine a slightly higher number of catchy parts with their furious whirlwind, the next album will be a genre milestone. Anyway, already their third full-length shows a vigorous, unswerving and uncompromising band in very good form. Thrash or die.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Carl on April 24, 2020.

I've mentioned it before and I'm going to again: in this whole old school thrash revival thing you really have to search to sort the worthy bands from the mere pretenders. Most of the stuff in this genre is as boring as intently watching paint dry. It's for a big part kids reliving times they didn't experience the first time around. Good for them, not so interesting for me personally, because, let's face it, very few of these nowadays thrashers will be able to release something like a new "Darkness Descends", "Forbidden Evil" or "Ignorance" anytime soon. And neither will Released Anger, but I found them to be more enjoyable than a band like Havok, to name one.

This is because the music sounds really familiar and that's in great part due to the vocals, it's like listening to a young version of Kreator's Mille. What also plays in their advantage is that their music is faster than most of the stuff I hear these days. I'd describe it as a cross of Kreator's period between "Terrible Certainty" and "Coma of Souls" albums with Vio-lence's first two records. I even heard some dashes of Annihilator and Anthrax in the music as well. The band is at its best when they go full throttle, and it is clear that this band consists of amazing musicians who deliver an excellent performance. I find myself grinning inanely, tapping my feet and nodding along approvingly listening to them speed through their compositions. However, in the fifth track, 'Inner Enemies', the band slow it down a notch and, for me, that wasn't necessary. It's a longer, groovier track and starts to bore me pretty quickly. And there is more that rubs me the wrong way. The album's dry sounding production knocks the balls out of the proceedings a tad. It's just too clean and could have used more grit to it, now it makes the drums sound pretty flat and that's a screaming shame because their drummer is an absolute beast behind the kit. On the upside, they conclude the proceedings with a not so obvious cover of Dutch death/thrash legends Thanatos and they absolutely nail it!

The band is at its best when they're going 666 miles per hour, simple as that. I also appreciate the familiar sound they have; it brings back memories of the faster thrashers of the late 80's and early 90's like (a lot of) Kreator, Vio-lence and Dutch speed dealers like Dead Head and the aforementioned Thanatos. If they would've gone for a more organic production and had dropped the fifth track this would've had me all up in a bundle. Still, this stuff kicks way more ass than what 95 % of the present-day thrash bands (and a lot of the reunited ones!) churn out nowadays.

Rating: 7 out of 10