EBM Records s'est lancé dans une entreprise de grande envergure : vous noyer sous la vague revival Thrash en allant piocher un peu partout dans le monde des groupes n'ayant jamais compris que les années 90 sont finies.

L'expédition du jour nous amène en Serbie avec TOXIC TRACE dont je ne sais absolument rien, si ce n'est que, même pour un groupe de Thrash, ils jouent vite. Et qu'ils n'ont même pas vu la fin des années 90... Production garage fleurant bon les vieux classiques, vitesse d'exécution hallucinante et riffs inspirés sont là pour nous arracher un sourire de nostalgie et s'incruster en nous. Certes Torment n'est pas l'album du siècle, mais pour un premier essai il a un petit quelque chose qui donne envie d'y revenir. Sans se prendre la tête et en tablant sur leur technique, les Serbes réussissent là où beaucoup échouent en nous proposant du réchauffé : en fournissant au fan un ticket pour la fin des années 80, époque bénie pour le Thrash où KREATOR, SODOM et compagnie régnaient sans partage sur le monde, ils s'assurent l'attention des vieux roublards et montrent aux jeunes que c'était pas si mal avant.

Espérons tout de même que cette sortie de soit pas noyée dans le tsunami orchestré par EBM et que le label saura accorder au groupe toute l'attention qu'il mérite.

Toxic Trace was formed in 2007 by Djubre (drums), Dushman (guitars/vocals) and Mimi (bass). The latter is now replaced by Max. Their main purpose was to resurrect the MIGHTY thrash sound of the German thrash / speed metal bands of the Eighties. To this point, the band (that was obviously named after the 1987 Kreator track which was released on their ‘Terrible Certainty' album) released a demo entitled ‘Slaughter' (2009) and contributed four of their songs to the ‘Serbian Thrash Metal Fist Unleashed' compilation CD (2010) that also featured Deadly Mosh, Nadimac and Pollution.

The band's debut full-length CD recently came out through EBM Records , a record label that is increasingly profiling itself as one of the leaders of the contemporary thrash metal underground. No need to say that ‘Torment' is a pleasant accumulation for those who adore Assassin's ‘The Upcoming Terror' or Kreator's ‘Endless Pain' albums and was released a quarter of a century too late but who gives a fucking fuck? This is a nice somewhat chaotic thrash metal CD from Serbia that certainly can be heard abroad.

Rating: 70/100

Toxic Trace is not afraid to wear its influence on its sleeve. This Serbian group undoubtedly takes its name from the track on Kreator 's Terrible Certainty album. I say undoubtedly, because the band's debut, Torment , is bursting with the rabid aggression that characterized mid-eighties German thrash, and to drive the point home, Toxic Trace covers Kreator 's “Flag of Hate”. To Toxic Trace 's credit, however, the band's high regard for Kreator does not lead them to total mimicry. The influence of other early thrash acts like Sepultura (particularly in the vocals), Sodom and Slayer can be found in the band's sound. Yet, while Toxic Trace 's musical ideas seem not to extend beyond 1986, Torment features a performance and production of the quality befitting an album released in 2011.

The first thing that struck me upon listening to Torment is that Toxic Trace plays really fucking fast. Now, this being thrash metal, that fact should not come as a surprise, but Toxic Trace has a tendency to haul exceptional amounts of ass, even for a thrash band. Drummer Djubre's beats seem to rest on the verge of blasting, and guitarist/growler Dushman's strumming resembles the whir of power equipment. Unlike early Kreator , which had a tendency to charmingly stumble through some of its more intricate passages, Toxic Trace 's performance is razor sharp in every aspect, save solos, which have a reckless, seat-of-the-pants feel.  

As an album, Torment holds no inscrutable secrets; it  is thrash metal, pure and simple. Throughout the album's thirty-five minutes, Toxic Trace thrashes hard, fast, and well. There are a few moments where the band slows things down, like the intro to “Tormentor” (oddly not a cover of the Kreator song of the same name), which has a mid-paced “Remember the Fallen” type of groove, but none of these moments last overlong. Hell-hammering, head-banging fury is the story of Torment . Toxic Trace is not long on originality, but its riffs are good, its execution is flawless and its commitment to pure thrash fury is unassailable. There might be better thrash albums available, but you would be hard pressed to find one as authentically brutal as Torment .

Score: 7.5

For those of you who draw a line in the sand between Kreator's EXTREME AGGRESSION and everything that came afterwards, boy are you in for a treat. Serbia's Toxic Trace has a serious hard on for old school German thrash, particularly the first 4 albums from Mille Petrozza's posse. As the saying goes, imitation is often the sincerest form of flattery, but it also helps that this Serbian power trio rips the S@$! out of their debut full length, TORMENT.

Yeah, the retro thrash thing has been hot n' heavy for a while now, but there's something about TORMENT that's more endearing than the current glut of hipsters playing leather and spikes dress up time. Toxic Trace's love for pre-90's Kreator/Sodom/Destruction is just so beautifully honest, that it doesn't even matter that the 9 tracks on TORMENT sound just like pre-90's Kreator/Sodom/Destruction. And besides, pre-90's Kreator/Sodom/Destruction freakin' rules, and Toxic Trace reminds you why.

The tunes range from fast to faster to super fast, with chunks of meat spewing from the vocals and a drummer who sounds like he's having an epileptic seizure, covering such important topics as occultism, human butchery, and religious hypocrisy. “Haunted,” “Slaughter,” “The Antichrist” and a ripping cover of “Flag of Hate” are the highlights of the disc, but there's not a bad track among the bunch. Listening to Toxic Trace is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket of thrash on a cold night – it just feels…so…good. Check out Toxic Trace and TORMENT, available now through the good folks at EBM Records.

Rating: 3.5/5

Oftentimes a cover version found as the last song on a CD will stand out like a sore thumb, either ending things with a bit of mirth or in less fortunate cases disrupting the flow of the music completely at the last hurdle. It thus is almost unthinkable for such an artistic choice to end being up being the cap that completely confirms beyond all reasonable doubt the very definition of a band's style.

‘Torment', the debut from Toxic Trace, is one such aberration, as the version of the Kreator classic “Flag of hate” that ends the CD is so completely in line with the 8 songs that precede it that you could forgive a naïve newcomer for not even noticing the transition from original to tribute material.

That is just how much these Serb thrashers love the chaotic early period in the career of Mille and co, and while their first offering is obviously very short on originality it certainly makes up for it with a payload of violent enthusiasm.

Among the recent explosion of newly-formed, label-backed thrash bands that seems to be calming down somewhat of late, the rawer Teutonic style has been largely left on the back burner in comparison to the ever-more popular Bay Area approach, so while what Toxic Trace are up to is nothing new at least it isn't immediately stifled by the blight of over-familiarity.

While the 80s German sound is front-and-centre for all to hear, listening back to your old records will yield differences that are not immediately so obvious without direct comparison. What Toxic Trace have bottled on ‘Torment' is essentially the essence of early Kreator – the cascading riffs, hell-for-leather beats and scathing vocals (more Mille than Ventor) – while, intentionally or not, shearing away the subtler intricacies. With far less slowed-down (in relative terms) breaks in play, the CD is essentially an angry barrage of riffs from start to finish, less focused on individual songs than bludgeoning the listener into submission with a wall of ferocious sound.

Detractors of the band and indeed all derivative modern thrash would no doubt accuse them of completely missing the point, while Toxic Trace would of course turn the allegation on its head - whether it's a lunk-headed copy or a streamlined interpretation of a classic approach will come down to individual taste, but in terms of sheer adrenal impact its hard to argue with the results.

Such debates are best left for a night in the pub or on the forums in any case and ignored when listening to the CD itself – you may not hear a word that is shrieked, you may struggle to remember what order the riffs come in or even pick them apart, but if no-nonsense 80s-style German thrash pushes your buttons it will be hard to argue with the sickly charms of Toxic Trace.

3.5/5

Are you of the opinion that Slayer's career went downhill after Hell Awaits ? Do you miss the insanely fast songs like "The Final Command" and "Haunting the Chapel?" The ridiculous evil-ness of Show No Mercy , which, when originally released on vinyl, had one side labeled "6" while the other was "66?" Then Serbia's Toxic Trace has an album for you.

EBM Records has made it their mission to bring back old school Thrash and, for old time Slayer fans anyway, they have a winner with Toxic Trace's Torment . Singer Dushman has a blackened shout that is much deeper than Tom Araya's voice, but otherwise Toxic Trace are musically similar to the U.S. legends at the start of their career. Torment may be highly unoriginal, but Toxic Trace plays with enough energy to power a small city and they do it with unrelenting, lightning fast playing. These guys can probably squeeze an hour-long live set into about 35 minutes. Song titles like "Witch from Hell," "Against the Cross" and "The Antichrist" should leave little doubt concerning the band's lyrical stance. The naked, dead nun on the cover seals the deal.

Torment looks and sounds like it should have been released in 1985 and that is a good thing. This kind of furious Speed/Thrash Metal is just what the doctor ordered when you want to shut off your brain and start wailing on the air guitar. Toxic Trace plays the old school style and they play it well. And they don't give a shit if you've heard it before.

Rating: 4/5

Gran bella botta questi Toxic Trace! Serbi, i Nostri esordiscono con questo full a nome "Torment", una manciata di sassate tirate in faccia all'ascoltatore: Thrash Metal incazzato e diretto, che risente in maniera palese della scuola teutonica, Kreator su tutti, più d'una volta mi sono trovato davanti agli echi di "Pleasure To Kill" e la cover di "Flag Of Hate" posta in chiusura la dice lunga sull'amore dei ragazzi per la band del buon Mille Petrozza.

Vocals graffianti, drumming forsennato che ha nel classicissimo "tupatupa" la propria ragion d'essere e riff che vengono macinati tipo catena di montaggio, alternati ad assoli cacofonici e belli taglienti. Il fatto che esordiscano nel 2011 con un disco dal chiaro sapore eighties potrebbe far storcere il naso ai modernisti e anche a coloro che ritengono il revival Thrash degli ultimi anni una porcata. Vi confesserò che molto spesso anche io mi sono domandato le ragioni di questa "riesumazione"; intesa come il ritorno in auge di sonorità primordiali, ancora legate in alcuni frangenti all'Heavy classico ma molto spesso corredate da una produzione che negli anni '80 era solo un sogno (o un incubo, dipende da come la vedete). Me ne sono domandato le ragioni soprattutto perchè, solitamente, i frutti di questo ritorno al passato (ma neanche tanto) si sono dimostrati acerbi: promesse mancate, assenza di stimoli e mancanza di mordente, fattori che nel Thrash sono imprescindibili. I Toxic Trace non ci stanno a finire nel calderone dei "gruppi buoni ma che potrebbero fare di più" e sfoderano un'attitudine genuina che si fa veicolo di un Metal ferale, onesto, basilare, quanto di più vicino ci possa essere all'originaria concezione di Thrash Metal.

Un disco che sembra venire dal passato, un passato che in molti ricordano con nostalgia, ed è soprattutto a costoro che consiglio questo "Torment". Un tributo agli anni che furono quindi? No, piuttosto un disco onesto, suonato da gente onesta e con le palle quadrate, da accompagnare con una bella birra possibilmente.

Recensione a cura di: Soulgrinder
Voto: 75/100