The past few years have brought a revival of sorts in the metal sub-genre of thrash. For better or worse, more bands have chosen to bring this style back to the forefront.

Look at bands like Trivium, Warbringer, and Skeletonwitch who are bringing back some of those old school elements to a new audience. This resurgence has also helped pave the way for bands like Slayer (winning two consecutive Grammy's), Megadeth (well received new studio album), and Testament (set to release first album in nearly ten years) to entertain a career revival of sorts. Not that they went away, but their music sounds reinvigorated and considerably more relevant than it has in some time. While some bands are intent on bringing thrash kicking and screaming into modern times, there are other young bands who embrace the styles of old and just go out and rip classic sounding metal. One of those bands is grief of WAR, hailing from Japan. They emerged in 2005 with their debut album, which is being made available State-side by Prosthetic Records.

In true Japanese fashion, the band has a different take on the use of capitalization of the English language. Having read some about Japanese bands, I have come to learn that they use capitalization (or lack thereof) as much of an artistic preference as the words being written. I am not going to claim any understanding, but there it is. grief of WAR has turned to the glory years of thrash, meaning the 1980's, to take their inspiration. In turn, they have crafted a sound they have dubbed "Samurai Crunch." It is a style that is instantly familiar to metal fans and is supremely easy to slip into, like an old glove. Listening to this debut album is almost enough to make you forget that thrash ever faded to the background to begin with.

The deeper you get into a mounting crisis..., the more you will become enamored with their uncanny mimicry of the Bay Area sound, while remaining an original ensemble. I know I was reminded of Slayer, Testament, Megadeth, Overkill, and Exodus. All of those old school acts that threw themselves into their music with reckless abandon are represented well in this member of the next generation of thrash.

There is something loose and exciting about the way they play their music. It has a raw energy, like they just went into the studio and proceeded to bash out each and every track in one take, in order. As I listened, I thought about how so many bands today are completely calculated in their output. Everything is produced within an inch of its life. grief of WAR, on the other hand, has high production values, as would be expected, but still retains an off-the-cuff quality. Produced edge sounds about right, while also sounding completely wrong, but it works.