Hazzerd – Delirium

01. Sacrifice Them (In The Name Of God)
02. A Tormented Reality
03. Sanctuary For The Mad
04. Victim Of A Desperate Mind
05. Call Of The Void
06. Dead In The Shed
07. Illuminated Truth
08. Waking Nightmare
09. The Decline
10. The End (Outro)

Thrash metal fuels meaningful connection when it feels defiant, by way of punk energy and the steely-eyed shred-fingered competitive spirit of 80s heavy metal. When such flavours intrude into the modern thrash metal sound, they repel, making for an easy shortcut to a listenable sound that most often involves imitation of peers, and unversed musicianship til we’re selling millennial-specific genotypical observations.

One of the picks taken here is Canadian thrash band Hazzerd, founded by the then-teenagers Dylan Westendorp (drums and vocals) and Brendan Malycky (guitarist) in 2012, who were influenced by bands like Exodus, Overkill, Anthrax and Metallica, as heard on the the debut album Misleading Evil, Hazzerd’s second album, Delirium, draws heavily from peak Megadeth, 80s shred, and classic heavy metal in general; it escapes the street-level thrash of their peers, delivering tightly executed guitar work that rarely feels robotic or plainly repetitive on a full listen.

The whirlwind that Delirium unleashes on Side A gives off an impression not far from a front-loaded generationally appropriate Bay Area band a la early Overkill or Forbidden, though their approach to riffing is more modern and not plainly ‘retro’, closer to Havok (or, maybe Hexen). The record includes two instrumentals: “Call Of The Void”, containing six minutes of trad heavy metal, and outro “The End”. Dylan Westendorp’s distinct shrieks effuse a certain over-the-top personality with his voice, which lands somewhere between the diction of Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) and the howling of Tim Baker (Cirith Ungol). The production does the album no justice with its dryness, diminishing the impact of the sound and hollowing out the drums even as they are pushed to the forefront of the mix. This approach strips the depth, and cuts out a major chunk in the audio quality, sounding insipid and dishwater. That’s just me.

Look, Hazzerd may have studied classic thrash metal’s peak in the mid-to-late 80s or may be a particularly gifted anomaly among the most recent wave of Canadian thrash metal vibrancy; what they have put together on Delirium is a fun thrash ball, juggling beers from crates and sneering middle fingers thrown adding up to a fucking good time. A far superior release than ‘Conformicide’ or ‘Dystopia’ and their levels of foil hat preach-cringe, this record carries the glace of variation, and features impactful percussion, shredding, and howling lunacy.