Toxic Holocaust are one of the few recent thrash bands who get it right - stripped down, immediate thrash, without bells and whistles, without anything added to the mix. It's not modern thrash - it's late 1980's thrash made in 2005.
I saw Toxic Holocaust open for The Possessed and by the time their set was over, I was rushing to the merch booth to pick stuff up - only to find they had packed it up as nothing was selling. I think if they stayed open for longer, they would have found a lot of new fans clamoring for gear.
After the show, I bought every one of their records and was blown away to find that Toxic Holocaust is one guy - Joel Grind, who, at least on the first few records, played all the instruments and recorded the album by himself.
Every song on Hell On Earth is great - raw, unfettered thrash. No pretense. If you like this one track, you'll like the whole catalog of what Joel and Toxic Holocaust has done, I absolutely guarantee it. Plus, cover art by Ed Repka? You know this has to be good.
I grew up with a lot of Jazz-Fusion in the house - Jeff Lorber et al - and as a youngster into '80's pop and then '80's hip-hop and late '80's metal, the Jazz-Fusion thing didn't really take my by storm. As it was, it was my dad's music and our relationship when I was a kid was strained. I was a difficult kid and my dad was a difficult guy and we were naturally adversarial. It wasn't until my mid-twenties that we started to reconnect - after I had done a good bit of growing up.
He bought me The Jeff Lorber Collection on CD and so many of the tracks brought back memories of a comfortable house and what I have come to call 'cerebral Sundays' - ones you spend reflecting and thinking rather than late brunch and drinking. Not that its a religion or anything, but I like Sundays to be about chilling hard and reflecting. And West Wing episodes at night.
I bought quite a few Jeff Lorber and Westher Report records over the years and only recently started listening to fusion on Sundays again with Linda when we are zipping around town doing errands and drinking coffee.
Chick Corea featured on some Lorber recordings (most notably Soft Space) and was the main reason I started to look at Return To Forever. I picked up a few records, but this, their third album has easily become my favorite.
It's more Jazz-Rock and Funk than true Fusion, but whatever you term it, it's fantastic. The songs are well-crafted and driving, moody without being too demanding like many Weather Report songs (heavy horn stabs, fast-paced solos) and have a cool kind of space-rock-jazz thing happening, like Hawkwind-meets-jazz.
The titular track is one of the best on the album and has a heavy prog element and tremendous playing. The tone and sound of the guitar and bass on this track have that late 1960's feel - fuzzy, heavy with that distinct electric organ pulse.
Most of the other tracks on the record are a bit more laid back and mello, especially the last two on the record, 'Space Circus Parts 1 & 2' and 'The Game Maker', which does pick up at the end.
Like most Jazz-Fusion, this record can be found on the cheap and this one was bought at Dusty Groove here in Chicago, along with quite a few other fusion records on the same trip. Get some coffee and chill hard with this one.
