Onslaught
Power From Hell
[Powerage]
Originally released on the C.O.R. label back in the early 80s, this
classic of black death thrash has now been made available through
Powerage (and their first release to boot). Onslaught started their
career as a punk band from the Bristols area in the UK (home of the
even more impressive Amebix), had a few tracks released on some
compilation LPs here and there, but then discovered where their true
strength lay...METAL! While they continued over a period of at least
several years to crank out album after album of thrash, they never
managed to recapture the heights achieved on this, their righteous first
release (other may disagree, but I found that once Paul "Mo" Mahoney
stopped doing vocals, the group lost it's real edge).
This album isn't really anything ground breaking - even when it was
first released, it wasn't as if this was "paving new roads", but it's
still one of *THE* most solid LPs to emerge from the early days of
extreme metal - and time hasn't made it the worse for wear. 10 tracks
(plus an into & an outro), just over 40 minutes, and not a blemish to
be found. The best way to sum up the sound would be "Venom if they
listened to more Discharge and less Motorhead, with a slight hint of
"Hell Awaits" Slayer thrown in for good measure". Yes, this *IS* a metal
LP through & through, but Onslaught didn't shed all of their punk/hardcore
roots - some of the songs ("Thermonuclear Devastation" comes to mind) have
that Bristols punk sound to them, but their hardcore influence is not so
overpowering as to launch this into the "crossover" category. The vocals
are low & guttural, the guitars saturated with bottom end, the bass nothing
less than solid, and plodding drums that fit perfectly into the mix. On a
couple of the tracks ("Death Metal" and "The Devils Legion") Paul passes
the vocal duties on to someone else, possibly guitarist Nige (a misspelling
of Nigel ???) Rockett, although of this I'm not entirely sure - I know the
original LP had credits as to who was singing, but unfortunately the CD
does not (also on another note: while Powerage does a fairly decent job of
packaging, including all the lyrics (albeit in the wrong order), they fucked
up on the tracking, and have divided "The Devils Legion" into 2 tracks
(7 & 8 respectively). Something that could have been avoided with a little
care)...
I heartily recommend this to any fans of old school black/death/thrash, and
also to anyone who might want to hear what one of the prime (and much
overlooked) bands from this era were doing at the time. An solid debut when
it was first released, and still a solid album today...
© 1998 chorazaim