Havok - Point Of No Return

Thrash has long been my favorite sub-genre of heavy metal. Admittedly I've never really dove that far deep with thrash though. Most of my focus stays on Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, Overkill and the other that have been around since the 80's. Formed in 2004, Havok come from Colorado and have gotten a lot accomplished in just eight years. Two self released albums helped them catch the attention of Candlelight Records where they released two more full lengths. It's been a year since their last record and they are back again with a four (five really) song EP called Point Of No Return.

The title track kicks off this record and sets the tone immediately for the rest of the songs. There is no mistake right from the beginning that this is thrash metal. Everything from the vocals, blistering guitar riffs, headbanging beat and huge solo sound right on point. "Cradle To The Grave" starts off with a galloping riff and reminds me a lot of early Metallica. From there it is pretty standard thrash before things slow down about three minutes in for a big build-up and solo. That part helps explain the five minute length of the song that gets a little repetitive by the time this break kicks in.

The rest of the record are cover songs. Sepulturas' "Arise" is up first and sticks to almost the exact sound of the original, but who could complain about that. "Postmortem/Raining Blood" also sounds like a pretty standard cover. So they didn't do anything flashy with either cover, but Sepultura and Slayer did enough to first time around and if aint broke, don't fix it.

This EP isn't incredibly long, and it doesn't give as much of a taste of Havok as I would have liked. I assume if there weren't two cover songs this would be a better sampling of their work. With the rate they are moving as far as putting out releases, I am sure that this is just meant to hold over their fans until the next album. Until then this has made me interested enough that I am going to go check out their back catalog.

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