Band:	Vicious Blade
Album:	Relentless Force
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	September 27, 2024
Guest review by:	Blackcrowe

01. Relentless Force
02. Lunacy
03. Mistress Of Death
04. Visceral Weakness
05. Forged Steel
06. Blasphemous Conjuring
07. Nocturnal Slaughter
08. Scorched
09. Death Blow

Clarissa’s Relentless Blade.

At the beginning of the 2000s, a nostalgic “movement” emerged to revive the thrash metal scene. The overproduced output of bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Kreator, and many others caused fans to stampede away, leaving those bands behind for another generation of listeners. But what happened to the widowed fans who needed fresh meat and were searching for thrash in its primitive, raw form, not overproduced or overly polished? Those fans eventually found what they were looking for here.

Vicious Blade isn’t one of those revival bands but fits perfectly; from Pennsylvania, the band hits the scene with their amazing debut album, Relentless Force. After releasing two EPs during the pandemic, they attacked with nine tracks packed into 28 minutes. This record is fast, ferocious, and impossible to ignore.

From the opening title track, Vicious Blade unleashes their rough sound of pure 80s thrash, capturing the style's furious energy and technical brutality. But it’s not exactly Bay Area thrash; Vicious Blade actually leans closer to the German scene, drawing comparisons to bands like early Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom, while also incorporating Gothenburg influences. Songs like “Forged Steel” and “Nocturnal Slaughter” showcase their ability to combine great riffing with a hardcore punk edge. The riffs are insanely aggressive, and the transitions shift between classic speed metal and crushing mid-tempo grooves, as heard in the track “Mistress Of Death”, my personal favorite.

Clarissa Badini might just be one of the best metal singers in today’s thrash. She delivers an impressive vocal performance on Relentless Force, alternating between scathing rasps and a semi-clean style. Other reviewers said that her vocal style is taken from Hellripper, Sacrilege, or Venom, but in my opinion, she sounds very close to Mille Petrozza’s early voice, adding savagery and pure metal to every song, totally unpolished. The standout “Lunacy” highlights her unhinged delivery, while tracks like “Blasphemous Conjuring” and “Visceral Weakness” lean into the darker, blackened side of Vicious Blade’s sound.

Adding to the experience is the awesome cover art by James Bousema. His work, also seen with Municipal Waste and Frozen Soul, perfectly captures the raw energy and chaotic spirit of the music.

Relentless Force doesn’t try to reinvent thrash while supporting the huge weight of that umbrella, but they do the best they can to deliver a great record. I’m not an impartial judge here because I love this style, but trying to be as objective as I can, Vicious Blade sometimes falls into repetition, and on the first listen, I had some difficulty distinguishing when one song ended and another began. However, with the next spin, those issues faded away. Maybe if they could put more effort into the B-parts of some songs or focus on crafting catchier, more memorable choruses, it would have elevated the album to another level. Still, it’s an incredibly entertaining record that brings back great memories of my thrash metal years.