Location: Chicago, Illinois
Country: USA
Genre: Technical progressive thrash metal
Single: No Time to Waste
From the forthcoming album "No Time to Waste"
Format: Digital, streaming
Label: Zoid Entertainment
Release date: September 30, 2022
In my extended contact with Aftermath since 2017, they've always had a socially conscious punk attitude and a thrash/hardcore feel to their musicianship. By building on this musical edge they’re maturing musically, and the same can be said about them lyrically. Let's face it, the world seems to be going to hell on a handrail and this Chicago band is still well aware of it, more so now than ever.
The band’s latest single “No Time to Waste” embodies a technical, experimental dissonant, hypnotic quality similar to mid-career Voivod and Megadeth infused with a momentous imperativeness. Rather than rushing faster than you can keep up to convey its message, it is patient and meticulous as it uses relentless mid-tempo rhythms as clear and sharp as the message it's trying to convey and born of natural progression. Most of the issues the band address go without saying; just spend a few minutes on AOL or Google and there’s more than enough to be concerned about, from governments threatening to drop the bomb to people gaslighting one another on social media to trigger happy nut jobs randomly assaulting people on the street.
All that considered, there was evidently truth to my own suspicions that media spin would worsen things if it played a role in the general public's perceptions. There have been some positive changes, however, including an increasing number of bands becoming aware of what's happening around them and raising awareness. It remains relevant and important for Aftermath to criticize government and media and there is still much to say.
Without sermonizing about broad mindedness, sounding holier than thou or patronizing the listener, the single urges you toward individual thinking and free expression of what you see around you in a way righteous cancel culture cannot emulate. Does it seem like their position was a result of them being taken in or having the wool pulled over their eyes? Not likely as they view the sociopolitical from the outside as much as they’re writing according to their instincts as musicians. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Kyriakos 'Charlie' Tsiolis: Vocals
Steve Sacco: Guitar
George Nektarios Lagis: Bass
Ray Schmidt: Drums
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