24/10/2022
Furious Barking VS Desmodus: Italian Thrash Relics Vol. I (2016) - mini-review
Italian bands Furious Barking and Desmodus were the bands highlighted on the archival split album "Italian Thrash Relics Vol. I", with both bands being split up for a number of years when this album was released as a joint project between two labels specializing in metal. As the album name implies thrash metal is the name of the game here, and relics presumably points to the fact that the material here is lo-fi in nature, and presumably originating from promo and demo recordings. Hence these are very honest recordings that comes with a number of flaws and faults included. Furious Barking sounds like a band pulling many influences from bands such as Anthrax, Nuclear Assault and Metallica into their repertoire, with songs ranging from crossover thrash aggressive exploits to more atmospheric laden creations. The rather more rough recordings from Desmodus showcase a band with more of a focus on speed and melody, with associations towards a band like Agent Steel coming easy to mind, and the vocals here tend to be more melodic as well, as a distinct contrast to the more hardcore style vocal style used by Furious Barking. This album will ultimately be a production with more of a niche field of interest I suspect. But those with a passion for the metal underground in general and the thrash metal underground of Italy in the 1990's in particular should find this production to be rather interesting I suspect.
https://open.spotify.com/album/20pmhN0LzHVqj4Pondrovd?si=9vA6UuRESx6CXlg-HA1-7Q
Rude Awakening Records, DeathStorm Records