Band:	Hazzerd
Album:	Misleading Evil
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	September 22, 2017
Guest review by:	Cynic Metalhead

01. The Tendencies Of A Madman
02. Absolute Destruction
03. The Execution Of The Damned
04. Misleading Evil
05. The Fallen
06. Under The Influence
07. Apocalypse Dawn
08. Road To Nowhere

Hazzerd, known as Forsaken until 2013, seek to remind listeners that it's kin with Anthrax, Testament, and Overkill from the 80s, and Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, andd Warbringer from the late 00s. Hazzerd’s Misleading Evil stands as a solid follow-up to their promising EP Victimize The Innocent (2014). With the lineup of Brendan Malycky and Toryin Schadlich shredding, David Sprague pounding basslines, and Dylan Westendorp juggling both drumming and vocal duties with ambitions to be Canadian thrash's Proscriptor McGovern's Apsû, they sought to ramp up the stakes. The biggest challenge for Hazzerd was what to serve up on the platter for us?

At first glance, Misleading Evil is pure thrash metal, wearing its 80s influence proudly. The riffs come fast, heavy, and relentless, with Malycky and Schandlich cycling through tight thrashy licks evocative of 1986 more than 2017. By this point, Hazzerd had signed with World War Now Records, which brought a more layered, thicker sound to the album. The result is riffs that cut deeper and sound meatier with snarling vocals. Westendorp’s vocals, though a bit more restrained compared with on the EP, still perfectly provide the sneers and snarls that fans expect.

Hazzerd tried to move beyond the typical thrash spectrum, weaving melodic elements and a palpable sense of progression into the music that feels deliberate yet organic. The interaction between Malycky’s rhythm guitar and Schandlich’s solos is especially notable. Sprague’s bass work, too, deserves mention, particularly in “Road To Nowhere”, where his melodic phrasing lends an unexpectedly graceful touch to the album’s conclusion.

Misleading Evil also wisely mixes up the pace, occasionally slowing things down, and these transitions feel smooth and intuitive, never disrupting the flow of the album but instead enhancing it, such as in “Misleading Evil”, as the ominous, 8-minute slow-burner revels in its melodic motifs. What sets Misleading Evil apart is Hazzerd's love to wear classic thrash on their sleeves, enthralling and crushing us with crispy and meatier riffs, heavier bass and kickass drumming reviving the 80s thrash era.

It's convenient to proclaim here that Hazzerd offered another vision to the likes of Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, and Warbringer, each of whom exhibited a prolicivity to play shorter tracks of fast, aggressive thrash metal.