Originally released on the C.O.R. label back in the early 80s, this classic of black death thrash has now been made available through Powerage (and their first release to boot). Onslaught started their career as a punk band from the Bristols area in the UK (home of the even more impressive Amebix), had a few tracks released on some compilation LPs here and there, but then discovered where their true strength lay...METAL! While they continued over a period of at least several years to crank out album after album of thrash, they never managed to recapture the heights achieved on this, their righteous first release (other may disagree, but I found that once Paul "Mo" Mahoney stopped doing vocals, the group lost it's real edge).

This album isn't really anything ground breaking - even when it was first released, it wasn't as if this was "paving new roads", but it's still one of *THE* most solid LPs to emerge from the early days of extreme metal - and time hasn't made it the worse for wear. 10 tracks (plus an into & an outro), just over 40 minutes, and not a blemish to be found. The best way to sum up the sound would be "Venom if they listened to more Discharge and less Motorhead, with a slight hint of "Hell Awaits" Slayer thrown in for good measure". Yes, this *IS* a metal LP through & through, but Onslaught didn't shed all of their punk/hardcore roots - some of the songs ("Thermonuclear Devastation" comes to mind) have that Bristols punk sound to them, but their hardcore influence is not so overpowering as to launch this into the "crossover" category. The vocals are low & guttural, the guitars saturated with bottom end, the bass nothing less than solid, and plodding drums that fit perfectly into the mix. On a couple of the tracks ("Death Metal" and "The Devils Legion") Paul passes the vocal duties on to someone else, possibly guitarist Nige (a misspelling of Nigel ???) Rockett, although of this I'm not entirely sure - I know the original LP had credits as to who was singing, but unfortunately the CD does not (also on another note: while Powerage does a fairly decent job of packaging, including all the lyrics (albeit in the wrong order), they fucked up on the tracking, and have divided "The Devils Legion" into 2 tracks (7 & 8 respectively). Something that could have been avoided with a little care)...

I heartily recommend this to any fans of old school black/death/thrash, and also to anyone who might want to hear what one of the prime (and much overlooked) bands from this era were doing at the time. An solid debut when it was first released, and still a solid album today...

© 1998 chorazaim