Black Fast – Terms of Surrender (eOne)
Tuesday, 21st July 2015
It wasn’t too long ago that we checked out Black Fast on Bandcamp and stated that “it’s hard to see these guys stay unsigned much longer.” Turns out we were right, and the band was picked up by eOne to move on to bigger and better things. And bigger and better is what you’ll get with Terms of Surrender, the band’s first full-length.
The relative simplicity of Black Fast’s formula is what allows it to also be so razor-sharp in its execution. Take some retro-thrash (with definite Bay Area influences as well) and toss as many absurdly headbangable riffs into each track as possible, with some Chuck Schuldiner-esque vocals to put the frosting on the cake. Needless to say, fans of bands such as Revocation or Havok should have a good idea of what to expect here. Black Fast comes out of the gate thrashing with “The Keep,” and keep it that way closing shop with “Until Dusk.” It’s really the meat & potatoes of the whole thing that make it such an engaging (and neckbreaking) effort, which in this case are the riffs and melodies. The first released track, “To Propagate the Void” gives a good measurement of what to expect. A combination of snarling death metal licks and barreling forward with thrash intensity, the band fires off gnarly riffs one after another, culminating in a scorching solo towards the end of track. The rest of the tracks follow suit with the same mindset. It’s only the melodic intro of “The Coming Storm” and the slowburn of “The Fall” that may fool you with its slower opening, complete with acoustic guitars and all, but it doesn’t take long to spitball into a venomous rampage.
It’s the utterly relentless intensity from start to finish that gives Black Fast their charm. Doused with adrenaline and uncanny knack to keep things interesting despite the blistering speed – it’s a rare combination in such a young band. Terms of Surrender is bound to give you a sore neck with repeated lessons, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
