Label: Doomentia Records
Release date: February 21st, 2025
There were some young bands’ second albums I was writing about these days, so now that’s time to take a look at the sixth full-length of some old (born under the name L.A. Kaos 1981), and in my opinion a legendary one. This modest number of albums absolutely isn’t about laziness of musicians or something like that. In fact, if we know how many and how many changes in line-up took place, I’m a bit surprised by the number of their releases. Besides, Hirax was dead eleven years (between 1989 and 2000), which makes this mentioned before number even more impressive, I guess.
Anyway, those of you who know the creativity of this ensemble very well, will not find anything new here. I mean, released originally by Doomentia Records on February 21st (seven days later Armageddon Label released it, too; and on March 15th Kill Again Records gave us one more CD version of this album) full-length contains the same songs as the demo from 2023 – in a little other order. But I can somehow bet there’s not too many such individuals between our readers. And actually I’m quite sure I’ll win, because, hell knows why, Hirax never was in the so-called first league of American or even Californian ensembles. You know, it wasn’t there in what I thought were opinion-forming newspapers and so on. Reason of this shit isn’t the quality of their creativity for sure and I even think their debut album, ”Raging Violence” always was at least a little underrated album. In my world, the same like ”Hate, Fear and Power” that’s a cult. I absolutely can’t imagine how you can’t know it.
By the way, after taking a look at artwork and even logos, the very best part of you probably, or even surely, guessed what kind of our beloved genre we have to do here with. Yes! This is of course old school thrash metal. And there’s everything you expect from bands playing such music – sharp as razors riffs, energetic drumming and characteristic vocalization. This is the American school we’re listening to here and you’ll surely have associations with the same more well-known bands, just like I have (if someone wanna, then can contact me and we’ll chat about it). As I wrote before, Hirax for me is on the same level as them, but at the same time I know I’m, unfortunately, an exception. But at the same time Hirax in my opinion always had its own style. You can of course say it wasn’t anything very original in the eighties and still, given the fact that for several years popularity of such sounds among metalheads has definitely increased, is nothing too original. Well, on one hand, I can agree with that, because Katon and company, who joined him last year, by the way, are clinging to the framework of genre. But on the other hand there’s also some touches, quite delicate, but possible to recognize by experienced ears, of other old school, and in fact familiar to Thrash, genres of Metal. Well, I could write more and more about this stuff (and this way I have an excuse to listen to it next twenty times), but at the same time I think the best thing you can do is to check it out for yourselves and see for yourselves!
When you’ll do it, you won’t be wondering for a moment if you should buy this album (in your favorite format – somewhere on the beginning of this scribble I wrote who released it and in what form, so you know where to go) or shouldn’t do it! That’s a thing, must-have, full-length especially for every real thrasher. Otherwise, if you call yourself thrasher and won’t buy it, then you’re for me just a poser! Especially that first of all, even on 12” (which always is the most expensive version) you don’t have to spend your whole property, and secondly, this music is worth all the money in my opinion! So, I end this review with a once clasic sentence. Buy or die!
