Toxic Holocaust’s new album, their fourth, exhibits many of the core qualities of their previous work: remarkably tight layering of precise speed drumming, punk synched bass and guitar foundation, and the guttural reverberation of Joel Grind’s vocals that lend the essential twinge of evil and a feeling of apocalyptic anxiety.The new album, Conjure and Command, released July 19 on Relapse records, deviates from previous releases on a number of fronts. Grind’s last release, An Overdose of Death, displayed a more punk-infused sound and a foreboding tone surrounding themes about the hostile takeover of vicious, apathetic machines and nuclear fueled zombies. Overdose was propelled more by rapidity of sound and high pitched guitar parts- harkening back to the brilliant and evil simplicity of Bathory.
The new album, however, exhibits less of a punk sound and weans more on the side of black metal and death metal in a number of surprising and impressive ways. It is laden with bass breakdowns (more characteristic of doom metal) that culminate to the faster pace we know and love, but with darker intonations. Songs such as “Red Winter” and “Agony of the Damned” begin with the slow, bass-driven drone of impending doom and gloom, with the prophetic qualities attributed more to the occult, Satan rites, and the conjuring of the “Oracle of the Dead”. “Bitch” tells the story of a witch being burned at the stake for committing blasphemous acts. Thematically, Conjure and Command still predicts the end of humanity through the raising of the dead, while maintaining its trademark Anti-Christian ideology (“I am Disease”) and anti-war themes. But this time, instead of focusing on the chemically bastardized miscreants of their past work, hell is unleashed through the beckoning of long-suppressed creatures of the underworld whose unearthing will ravage and extinguish every existing soul.
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Toxic Holocaust is currently on tour with Pasadena, CA’s Holy Grail promoting the new release and giving fans a taste of their newly altered sound. At their performance at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago on August 25, bassist Phil Zeller, in true metal form, donned the classic Godfather’s of Death t-shirt, paying tribute to the English band Venom, widely considered to be the ultimate contributors to the genesis of thrash, speed, and black metal. Toxic Holocaust has made a truly notable (and in my opinion exciting) genre transition. So for those fans who have been craving something more on the metal end of the spectrum, and this album will be very satiating.
