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STRUCK A NERVE
Struck A Nerve

Listenable (2025)
Rating: 8/10

Striking hard and fast with their debut full-length outing, UK thrashers Struck A Nerve make up for in sound what their moniker doesn’t. Combining their snapping fury with Power Trip and the archetypal rage of Slayer, this album certainly ticks all the boxes when it comes to furious familiarity. More suited to that New Wave Of Thrash movement spearheaded by Evile all those years ago, Norwich-based Struck A Nerve is a little too heavy on the generic side, but for a night in the sweat pit it’s the ideal soundtrack.

The album is the creation of vocalist / bassist Aarran Tucker (ex-Shrapnel), guitarists Nathan Sadd (Shrapnel) and Lexell Altaïr Garrido, and drummer Christopher Williams (Gama Bomb, ex-Shrapnel). Unsurprisingly, the album features all four singles which were released over the last year and a half, these being ‘Nocturnal Terror’, ‘Inside The Torture Fortress’, ‘Parade Of Violence’ and namesake song ‘Struck A Nerve’.

This fistful of metal bridges the gap between old school aggression and contemporary vim, the quartet basically fusing Slayer, Sodom and Warbringer for a volatile cocktail that delivers a punch to the throat and a kick to the guts. Yes, there’s definitely a Teutonic edge to some of the songs, probably more so with the flashes of melodic steel.

Injections of metallic subtlety are always welcome when faced with such hazardous concoctions, case in point being the chugging ‘Last Eyes See All’. For the most part though, the album is served on a foundation of sharp, serrated and busy riffs which fizz by at a rate of knots. ‘Moon Sniper’ was an initial favourite, a scurrying snarling example of modern thrash plucked from the still foaming mouth of latter day Slayer.

Tucker’s vocal style is far from original as he spits and barks his way through the scathing tirades of ‘The Knife Scrapes The Bone’. His aggression matched by the slam of the drums and bass and then coated in the deadly fizz of the riffs. There’s a strong groove to the bass on ‘Raining Death’, a track which channels the spirit of Power Trip, while ‘Parade Of Violence’ is a lethal cross of Nuclear Assault and Havok.

I think you’ve got the message already, and with Listenable Records in support of their mayhem I see no reason why Struck A Nerve can’t force their way into the bigger leagues.

Neil Arnold

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