Excessive Cruelty 2011

"Lock and load and get ready for war, because Nocturnal Fear are about to launch a major attack on your town.

From beginning to end, Nocturnal Fear deliver one barrage after another of aggressive thrash metal on "Excessive Cruelty" accompanied by war-themed lyrics. While there are some more death metal-like elements, such as the occasional well-placed blastbeat and death metal-style riffage, Nocturnal Fear's style on this album is very old school.

There are some Slayer and other American influences, to be sure, but primarily they draw on the more brutal and aggressive thrash metal style associated with the German thrash bands of the mid-to-late 1980s. Thus, Nocturnal Fear capture the technicality of American 80s thrash metal and the raw and dirty aggression of German thrash metal of the 1980s and combine it into a quasi-technical and aggressive-to-brutal feel. In other words, this is thrash metal when thrash metal is really good.

The production is also retro and has a certain DIY-feel to it, much like the thrash metal of the 1980s. So, it has a raw quality to it, but it is not so lo-fi that it sounds amateurish or anything. It just sounds authentic, and suits the aggressive music perfectly.

"Excessive Cruelty" by Nocturnal Fear is recommended to any fan of authentic ass-kicking thrash metal.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"