Release year: 2024
Label: Vicious Witch Records

With a name like Thrasherwolf, you’d be forgiven if you assumed this UK group play thrash metal. However, nothing could be further from the truth. If I had to pin a genre name to their versatile sound, it would be some kind of progressive, technical post-metalcore.

I jest, of course. Thrasherwolf are totally a thrash metal act. As is evident already from the cover artwork with its slightly silly, denim clad werewolf. There’s no pretense about these guys; they proudly wear their thrashing hearts on their sleeves.

The band themselves say their music draws from both classic old school thrash and new school. However, you don’t have to listen to many seconds of Inside The Sickened Mind, their second album, to understand that old school is what these guys are about. New school elements are in a definite minority here; spice on a stew made from old school.

Think a solid foundation of classic Sodom laced with everything from the earlier works of the Big Four, the rest of the Bay Area and a dollop of that good ole Teutonic thrash. That’s Thrasherwolf for ya. Sure, there’s the odd bit here and there which reaches out of that pigeonholed box, but for the most part, the rudiments of classic old thrash metal are the building blocks from which Inside The Sickened Mind is built.

And I have to say, vocalist Daniel Lucas provides some pretty convincing younger Tom Angelripper style thrash snarls behind the microphone.

Derivative is definitely a word you can use about Thrasherwolf. Originality or innovation make themselves known by their total absence… but then, when the band names themselves Thrasherwolf, I think it’s safe to assume they didn’t set out to renew or evolve the genre. Nah, this is a celebration of the core tenets of thrash metal.

And they do this quite well. Take a track like the video track G-B-H (Gratuitious Bodily Harm). With it’s grooving riffs, simple shoutalong chorus and good energy, it’s ensured to satiate thrash fans the world over. A bit cookie cutter? Yes. Heard before by more iconic bands? Yes. Does it matter? No.

The main problem with the album is a simple but annoying little thing. After 3/4’s of solid thrashing, the band have elected to put the two most aberrant tracks back to back at the end of the album. Haunted is a slower, more brooding track, whilst the title track which closes off the album is the longest and structurally most complex track on the album. And, it has to be said, Thrasherwolf excel when keeping it straightforward: the title track isn’t exactly technical or progressive thrash, but still a bit too convoluted to be simple high speed thrashin’ fun.

The reason why this is a small problem is that as it stands now, by finishing up with two somewhat atypical tracks, which also are the weakest, the album leaves the listener with the impression that it’s less than it actually is. The album would have greatly benefited from having a straightforward thrasher like opening track Final Act Of Aggression on the opposite end of the album to bookend it all with what Thrasherwolf do best.

As such, Inside The Sickened Mind is a nice little album of unoriginal but absolutely fun thrash marred by minor issues. It’s one for the diehards and the aficionados, people who live and breathe thrash metal. Normos and randos need not apply: but for the aforementioned, Inside The Sickened Mind is pretty much guaranteed to provide bang for the buck.

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