Full Length Review: Trenchwar "From The Earth To The Moon" (Sleaszy Rider Records) by Dave Wolff

Band: Trenchwar

Location: Ankara

Country: Turkey

Genre: Thrash metal

Full length: From The Earth To The Moon

Format: Digital album, CD

Label: Sleaszy Rider Records (Romania)

Release date: March 8, 2024

The surreal cover artwork of Trenchwar’s second full length “From The Earth To The Moon”, depicting a Baphomet like figure in a space suit, calls back to the proto-science fiction of the early twentieth century, with a mysterious theme of what to expect when journeying into space for the first time. In a way this fits considering how subtly they displays their myriad influences.

This is the band’s second album since 2020’s “Criminal Organizations” and there has been much evolution on their part since those days. At first I thought “From The Earth To The Moon” was conventional thrash, but as it grew on me I saw it’s a standalone album that shows Trenchwar as having an identity all their own. I discerned constituents of technical thrash, classic metal, brutal death metal, melodic death metal, hardcore and black metal vocals all rolled in an impenetrable package. This album has comparable song structure to old Metallica and enhances thrash’s roots in seventies rock. It contains the energy of a Testament show and buffets you like an Amon Amarth album.

Groove is written into the material with especial subtlety, accompanying stringent heaviness and dense production with streamlined vibrations. This technical skill is engrossing with little effort, giving the unceasing aggression and consistent time changes an instinctual ambiance. Trenchwar's songwriting provides as many melodic sections as shifts in velocity, with straightforward conveyance. The transfixing lead guitars are somewhere between the lead solos of Hank Sherman and Michael Denner (Mercyful Fate) and Eric and Brian Hoffman (old Deicide), resonating with an analgesic character.

Close attention is called to the inventive license the band took with their cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown” and their tri-tone sampling of Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath” in “In the Grip of Cult” which serves as a fitting album closer. -Dave Wolff

Lineup:

Harun Altun: Vocals

Tolga Otabatmaz: Guitars

Dağhan Erdoğan: Guitars

Gürdal Sönmez: Bass

Yiğit Aksoy: Drums

Track list:

1. Tax Corruption

2. From The Earth To The Moon

3. Shock Doctrine

4. Benevolent Businessmen

5. The Nailing Killer

6. Trash Not Thrash

7. Communication Breakdown

8. In The Grip Of Cult

[Contact information at Youtube link]