{"id":21506,"date":"2014-06-02T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T00:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=21506"},"modified":"2014-09-14T21:04:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-14T21:04:36","slug":"album-review-solitary-i-promise-to-thrash-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-solitary-i-promise-to-thrash-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"SOLITARY – I Promise To Thrash Forever (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOLITARY
I Promise To Thrash Forever<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCopro (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Okay, thrash-heads. It\u2019s time celebrate the career of one of the UK\u2019s most underrated, and certainly rarely talked about extreme metal bands.<\/p>\n

Thrashers Solitary were born in Preston back in 1994, during a time when the only music filling everyone\u2019s ears was grunge, but 20 years later \u2013 in spite of only two full-length albums under their belt (but another on the way!) \u2013 Solitary has released a live album entitled I Promise To Thrash Forever<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The album features 11 tracks \u2013 including a frothing version of Testament\u2019s \u2018Into The Pit\u2019 \u2013 with \u2018The Downward Spiral\u2019, \u2018A Second Chance\u2019, \u2018Twisted\u2019 and \u2018No Reason\u2019 being plucked from 1998\u2019s Nothing Changes<\/em> debut, and \u2018Predator\u2019, \u2018Spineless\u2019, \u2018Requiem\u2019, \u2018Keep Your Enemies Closer\u2019 and \u2018Hatred\u2019 taken from 2008\u2019s Requiem<\/em> album. Meanwhile, another track \u2013 as yet to be released \u2013 \u2018Unidentified\u2019 also appears.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not normally a big fan of live albums, especially involving thrash bands who usually suffer sound-wise when transferred to wax \/ CD etc. However, I Promise To Thrash Forever<\/em>, recorded in Selby during 2013, comes across well and is packaged with some great artwork depicting all manner of classic British thrash bands. According to the press release for this album, the concept of the artwork \u201cdepicts the decline of the LP and the fact that the key things that were so important in the original thrash movement have been disregarded in the wake of technology and file sharing. Those of us old enough to remember the golden years will recall the ecstasy of flipping through LPs in your local record shop and finding the album you\u2019d been after for weeks. Followed by the obligatory study of the cover, lyrics and thanks list on the bus on your way home, this was all part of the buying experience back in the day. The artwork shows the 80s UK thrash legends album covers having been rotted away and burnt in an attempt to show that the new technology as well as downloading and \u2018burning\u2019 of CDs has all but replaced the LP which has been almost forgotten completely\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

For those of you not familiar with Solitary, the line-up for this record consists of Rich Sherrington (vocals \/ guitarist), Andy Mellor (lead guitar), Ren Robinson (bass) and Roy Miller (drums). Musically, Solitary delivers no frills, energetic thrash metal in the vein of old school UK metallers Xentrix, Deathwish, Onslaught et al. Indeed, with this style of passionate, salivating thrash metal being extremely popular now, it would do Solitary well to hurry up and get the new studio opus out, because although this live album celebrates their past, I\u2019d much prefer to actually see them live or experience the new studio recordings.<\/p>\n

Having said that, I Promise To Thrash Forever<\/em> makes for quite a bruising experience, with Sherrington\u2019s vocal delivery sounding large over the backdrop of that cracking drum rattle and those forceful, speedy, clunky guitars. Testament\u2019s \u2018Into The Pit\u2019 clearly goes down a storm with its charging riffs, as does the pounding \u2018Predator\u2019; a maniacal lump of heavy thrash dedicated to British serial killer and \u201cwanker\u201d Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper).<\/p>\n

Most of the tracks, as expected from a thrash band, are delivered with pace. \u2018The Downward Spiral\u2019 churns weightily with those rolling guitars and steady drum nods, while new track \u2018Unidentified\u2019 stands up well alongside the back catalogue with its rampant percussion and deathly vocal menace.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never understood why Solitary have achieved such little recognition, but I guess it was a case of coming at the wrong time. Hopefully though, with a consistent output from here they should attract a horde of new fans eager for a taste of what British thrash metal has always been about.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOLITARYI Promise To Thrash Forever Copro (2014)Rating: 7\/10 Okay, thrash-heads. It\u2019s time celebrate the career of one of the UK\u2019s most underrated, and certainly rarely talked about extreme metal bands. Thrashers Solitary were born in Preston back in 1994, during a time when the only music filling everyone\u2019s ears was grunge, but 20 years later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1413],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-solitary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21506"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21510,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21506\/revisions\/21510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}