Richard HolmesHarlott – Proliferation (Metal Blade)
Genre: Thrash Metal
With a name like ‘Harlott’ you’d half expect these Aussies to be a sleaze rock band complete with spandex and cans of hairspray. Instead, the Melbourne crew serve up vicious thrash and sing about nuclear annihilation, rather than their latest foray down the Sunset Strip.
The quartet’s second full length doesn’t exactly reinvent the thrash metal wheel, but it is a formidable example of why this genre is still alive and kicking in its fourth decade. Proliferation’s vicious, snappy tunes are superbly executed and in more than a few places – The Fading Light, Systematic Reduction – superbly written.
Think Bay Area thrash bands like Testament and Exodus colliding with latter day Kreator and you have a good idea of what lies in store here: this is high energy metal from a band who know how to deliver. Plus, frontman Andy Hudson has proved here that here’s one of the thrash revival’s best vocalists, spitting out lyrics like a young Tom Araya on songs such as Bloodlust.
Occasionally, Harlott sacrifice good riff writing for heads-down mosh-fodder, but there’s enough quality to this opus to justify the band’s place on Annihilator’s current European jaunt.
Don’t bet against them heading back to Oz with a truck-full of extra Facebook followers and a healthy chunk of merch sales…
RUSHONROCK RATED: 7/10 Weapons-grade