Nocturnal Fear - 'Metal Of Honor'

Michigan death-thrashers resume their up-the-military litany on their fourth album of blistering speed, Metal of Honor.

Like mankind’s hopeless warring, heavy metal’s battle lines are as firmly established as ever. Not that Detroit’s Nocturnal Fear (it has to be noted there are other Nocturnal Fears on the scene in New Jersey and North Carolina) seem to care. These thrash guerrillas should be considered poster reps for “Death to False Metal” banners. Furthermore, if the Marines as a unified body supported death metal, Nocturnal Fear would assuredly be given honorary blood wings, as the band’s fourth album Metal of Honor brings it on the metal meltdown scale.

Forgetting the eternal “true metallers” vs. “poseurs” skirmishing which subdivides the metal scene, Nocturnal Fear, at this point consisting of Rev. Chris Slavehunter, PhD. on guitar and bass and Aggressor on drums (with session vocalist Doomy G. Blackthrash) are well on-point with their maniacal trad-shred. With a decidedly heavy lean towards German thrash ala Destruction, Kreator and Sodom along with American speed metal of the past such as Atrophy, Holocross and Exodus, Nocturnal Fear is one of this country’s fastest domestic products.

Opening Metal of Honor with a Rambo-sampled preamble, Nocturnal Fear rips into “Cast From Heaven” and rarely lets their feet off of the pedals. The album rages from the innards its own projected blast furnace of hostility, changing speeds only at a need to go faster. The first five tracks alone force torn neck cartilage from Nocturnal Fear’s violent thrash until momentarily settling into the instrumental trilogy “Reign of Terror.” “Terror” pauses long enough to host another haunted voiceover and a power metal intro to set up accelerating stanzas which wrap with a positively sick guitar yelp from Slavehunter. The Slayer-esque “Enigma of Steel” thence coerces the album back onto its skullcrushing course for a rowdy tank ride home.

Slavehunter is, hands-down, a freakin’ lunatic on this thing. His noisy yet articulate solos are ear-popping, particularly the ones found on “Triumph of Steel” and “Soldiers of Hell.” The whirlwind he spins during the intro of “Russian Roulette,” wowzers... The execution he and Aggressor (who practically lays down a clinic) heap into their retro thrash, death and grind is why the underground is beginning to pay attention.

If these guys weren’t so danged good at what they do, this Nocturnal Fear might be dismissed as utterly silly. Fact of the matter, if you’re into their pro-war stances, you’ll daydream you’re falling from the sky like napalm at breakneck speed. Even if you don’t subscribe to Nocturnal Fear’s outlooks, this is still a death from above hellride you’ll want to submit to just because thrash seldom sounds this vintage anymore.