{"id":79630,"date":"2019-09-27T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=79630"},"modified":"2019-11-01T23:19:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T23:19:45","slug":"album-review-acid-reign-the-age-of-entitlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-acid-reign-the-age-of-entitlement\/","title":{"rendered":"ACID REIGN – The Age Of Entitlement (2019) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACID REIGN
The Age Of Entitlement<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nDissonance Productions (2019)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Back in 1988 I visited London\u2019s legendary Shades Records and purchased a copy of Acid Reign\u2019s debut EP Moshkinstein<\/em>. At the time, UK thrash was on the up but the humour showcased by many of the bands seemed to alienate them from fans across the world, particularly the United States. As a result, many bands of this ilk struggled outside of Europe and so eventually dissolved.<\/p>\n

For their time, Acid Reign were a snappy, energetic and humorous thrash act that went on to release two full-length studio albums \u2013 The Fear<\/em> (1989) and Obnoxious<\/em> (1990) \u2013 before splitting up in 1991, and now, like many other seemingly defunct groups, they\u2019ve reformed (well sort of, as vocalist Howard \u201cH\u201d Smith is the only original member).<\/p>\n

The Age Of Entitlement<\/em> is Acid Reign\u2019s new offering, and once again it\u2019s a rather snappy yet surprisingly melodic affair. This is summed up perfectly by the bruising song \u2018The New Low\u2019, in which the band displays high levels of seriousness. With \u201cH\u201d being typically punkish in his rants, the band cross into hardcore vibes as axemen Dean \u201cCooky\u201d Cook and Paul Chanter deliver the goods to a thunderous backdrop of Marc Jackson\u2019s drums and the bass of Pete Dee. Indeed, the best word to describe such a track, in fact the whole album, is \u201cdirect\u201d. <\/p>\n

Acid Reign have come out fighting, which was already apparent when they churned out the singles \u2018Plan Of The Damned\u2019 (2015) and \u2018The Man Who Became Himself\u2019 (2017), and with The Age Of Entitlement<\/em> the vigorous strains continue for the whole duration. Rarely letting up for breath, the guys have created another moshpit to become part of and yet without the generic feel or repetition which continues to bog so many bands down.<\/p>\n

The tracks on the album fly by with such aggression and zip; the punky vim of the band\u2019s rendition of Suzanne Vega\u2019s \u2018Blood Makes Noise\u2019 is full of lethal tendencies, while \u2018Hardship\u2019 makes us realise how we\u2019ve all grown up… I\u2019m still in shock that the Acid Reign isn\u2019t the young pups they were back in 1988!<\/p>\n

But with maturity comes class, and through all of its intensity and speed Acid Reign\u2019s third full-length album remains invigorating in its melodies. \u2018Sense Of Independence\u2019 is a rigorous thrash work out, and closer \u2018United Hates\u2019 is bursting full of angst and bitterness, the band becoming sudden masters of political seething.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there\u2019s the straight up skull cracker \u2018Ripped Apart\u2019, the punked up attitude of \u2018My Peace Of Hell\u2019 which shits on Anthrax and gives them a lesson in the meantime, while \u2018#NewAgeNnarcissist\u2019 seethes with venom. In fact, this record couldn\u2019t be more malicious and lethal; \u201cH\u201d clearly fed up with the modern age and putting us to rights with his vitriolic tongue.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I thought that a new Acid Reign album would be good but underwhelm, but this one shows just how a comeback should be done. Acid Reign is very much a band with no eye on the past and its acid tongue firmly lapping and flicking away at our brains. The Age Of Entitlement<\/em> is a mocking, spiteful and abrasive record that puts the genre of thrash to shame. It\u2019s time to wake up and smell the toxic rain.<\/p>\n

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

ACID REIGNThe Age Of Entitlement Dissonance Productions (2019)Rating: 9\/10 Back in 1988 I visited London\u2019s legendary Shades Records and purchased a copy of Acid Reign\u2019s debut EP Moshkinstein. At the time, UK thrash was on the up but the humour showcased by many of the bands seemed to alienate them from fans across the world, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3311,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acid-reign","category-album-ep-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79630","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=79630"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79983,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79630\/revisions\/79983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}