Lȧȧz Rockit – Left For Dead

Lȧȧz Rockit is one of those bands that was part of that revolutionary Bay Area movement, but band broke up back in 1992 and after 13 years of silence they got back together in 2005 in order to tour with Testament, Anthrax and a few other big names of the genre. This experience seems to have started that old fire in the band who decided to record a first studio album since 1991’s Nothing’s Sacred.
And from the beginning there is no doubt that this is a band with a lot of experience and a band that will not let their thrash roots go for any price. The characteristic heavy drum and bass sound that band is known for and that Anthrax and Exodus made famous in late 80’s early 90’s is dominant in overall soundscape of this album. Still, though the rhythm section does dominate the overall sound, it doesn’t steal the thunder from the blazing guitars, which is an art that many thrash metal bands have a hard time mastering.

So the stage is set for a good experience, but what about the songs?
Songs are actually, for the most part, very good despite the fact that they lean on everything the band has done before. Songs are well written, well played and Michael Coons rusty vocals actually fit well to those almost catchy melodies, making them a little bit less catchy and rawer.
There is also a place for emotional and highly atmospheric likes of “My Euphoria” and the almost eight minutes long “Desolate Oasis”. These songs in their structure and placement on the record make this album more interesting to listen to, but by the time the closing song “Outro” hits the listener one wonders if the album would as a whole have been better without this track. This instrumental just feels somewhat pointless and it actually points out some of the negative sides of the album such as; predictability in riffs and rhythms.

Chuck Billy of Testament has called this the best album Lȧȧz Rockit have ever recorded and while I would not be as sure about that I would definitely say that this is one of the best albums of their career and perhaps one of the best trash metal releases of this year, so far.

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