The Day of the Beast

Self-titled

Canonical Hours 2008

Virginia's The Day of the Beast cranks out some seriously ear scorching black thrash on their debut album for Canonical Hours.  Starting with a Kreator-ish foundation The Day of the Beast adds lethal doses of black metal riffing and hints of death metal rhythmic leanings.  At times these guys remind me of Sweden's Merciless and that is probably the most accurate comparison I can make.  Predators Path kicks out searing thrash but with some freezing cold black metal riffing in the middle as well.  My favorite song on the album is Harvest of the Heretic's with its extremely catchy main riff and chugging death metal guitar passages.  He Who Shuns the Light begins with some furiously stabbing vocal lines delivered like rapier thrusts only for the song to slow to a crawl where melodic lead work and interesting bass lines flow in and out of the structure.  The next track, The Crawling Chaos, begins with some serious mosh-inducing stomping guitars.  Some slightly atmospheric black metal riffs then rise like mountains in the distance.  The album's closer, Upon The Throne almost has a Slayer taste to its initial stages but then pounds through some groovier sections.  The guitars on the album have a crunchy production and the drums have a nice "pop" to their sound.  The Day of the Beast is another band on Canonical Hours which lyrically dwells in the deeps of H. P. Lovecraft's universe of Chthulu Mythos.  The Day of the Beast's debut is intense from the word go and seldom lets up on the throttle.  They have crafted a deadly thrash/black metal alloy that escapes comparisons to the recent thrash revival that seems to be sweeping the scene.  A very enjoyable and promising debut that holds up the banner of underground and "evil" thrash and imbues their music with darkness rather than "fun."