Toxic Holocaust - Chemistry Of Consciousness

Published November 15 2013

*=Staff's pick	Awaken The Serpent Silence Rat Eater* Salvation Is Waiting Out Of The Fire* Acid Fuzz* Deny The Truth MK Ultra I Serve... International Conspiracy* Chemistry Of Consciousness

Genre	Thrash Metal	Joel Grind	Vocals
Tracks	11	Joel Grind	Guitar
Running time	28 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Relapse Records	Philty Gnaast	Bass
Release	25 October 2013	Nikki Rage	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Kurt Ballou
Similar artists	Sodom

Following 2011's Conjure And Command, this is the second Toxic Holocaust album done with a whole band, as opposed to the earlier records where Joel Grind played everything himself. And while I love the earlier albums, I think there's more dynamic in the band's sound today. Chemistry Of Consciousness is probably their best-sounding release to date, marking a huge step forward from the kind of flat sound of Conjure And Command.

At roughly three and a half minutes, Rat Eater is the longest song on the record. It's also my personal favourite, with its slow intro and haunting guitar melodies, building up for a total energy discharge. Naturally, there's not much variety but that's not really a big issue with a 28-minute album. You don't listen to a Toxic Holocaust album with expectations of ballads and different musical side-tracks. You expect nothing but brutal, old-school thrash metal without compromises. On this front, Chemistry Of Conciousness definitely succeeds.

Bathory is often mentioned as one of Joel's big influences and I would actually go so far as to say that Toxic Holocaust is probably the band that's doing the best job carrying Bathory's legacy today. While there theoretically is a large difference between Bathory's early works and Toxic Holocaust's apocalyptic thrash, the riffs and the way the songs are constructed are actually pretty similar. To me, I think that it's this element that really makes Toxic Holocaust a breath of fresh air in a watered-down genre. The ability to pack a lot of punch in an album shorter than thirty minutes also helps, of course.

Apart from the blistering guitar solos and mostly great riffs, I find Nikki Rage's drumming to be one of the components that really tie it all together. It has a very organic feel and is technical without sounding sterile. Overall, while not a groundbreaking effort, Chemistry Of Consciousness is a really good piece of thrash metal and in a better world, Toxic Holocaust would get a lot more attention than they are right now.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	6	8	7	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Bjorn