HURTLOCKER - Fear In A Handful Of Dust

HURTLOCKER
Fear In A Handful Of Dust
Napalm Records
8/10





Slayer, Pantera, Hatebreed - Hurtlocker fits right in there with all of them. On their Napalm Records debut, the band gets down to some serious thrashing that is of the caliber that doesn’t come along every day. Man, are these guys vicious! The blasting new age thrash metal of symptoms simply blazes with intense ferocity as axeman Tim Moe displays an affinity for completely ripping the fretboard apart. There haven’t been this many great thrash riffs on a single record since the days of pre-Lombardo departure Slayer and a touch of death metal influence on Moe’s part doesn’t hurt the sound of Hurtlocker either.

Vocalist Grant Belcher is a ballsy screamer, screaming like a banshee throughout the album with just a touch of hardcore making his voice sound gravely enough to make Hurtlocker a very deadly weapon indeed. “Painted Red”, “Symptoms”, “No One, Now What?” – each song flat out slays, between super-chugging riffs, intense double-kick blasts and anguished screaming chants, Hurtlocker get right down to business and rip your flippin’ head off with an unforgiving penchant for aural brutalism.

Stand back and witness the relentless pounding of “Goddamn Reflection”, where Belcher branches out and becomes a bit more diverse in singing style, or consider the maximum damage onslaught of “I Don’t Need You”, as Belcher totally unloads vocally, sounding like Phil Anselmo on steroids atop a galloping Slayer jam.

Music this intense is hard to accomplish with such precision as Hurtlocker manage. But even more important, the group shoves enough emotion into every single note to leave a very strong impression with the metal follower. “Fear In A Handful Of Dust” carries the impact of a daisy-cutter bomb and your soon-to-be ruptured eardrums are their ultimate target. Let ‘er rip!

Written By: The Thrash Commander