Great Awakening
Thrash til You Die

March 2009
Released: 2008, Self-released
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Great Awakening, coming from Florida, consisting of three brothers and one of their good friends (all between age 15-18), are determined to create a new awakening in old school thrash in the vein of the early Metallicas, Slayers, Megadeths and the likes. Replacing low and slow with speed and aggression is what they have loudly proclaimed to do - among other things as well.



The band has already managed to create a lot of fuss around them mostly due to their young ages, but also doing their thrash thing actually better and more convincingly than some others lately on the top of this very popular wave of thrash´s new coming.



Listening to Great Awakening´s damn aptly titled 7-track E.P., THRASH TIL YOU DIE, surely gives them lots of credit for going back to the roots of thrash, and adopting the sound of the golden times of thrash so well into their own material. A funny thing is that none of these fellows were even born when the heyday of the genre was going on back in the ´80s. Anyway, one fact doesn´t change anything - and it´s that these young kids can thrash in the true spirit of our beloved times of thrash metal invasion, despite their young ages.



It´s basically KILL EM ALL era Metallica that comes mostly in my mind when listening to this E.P., with some hints of early Slayer - not completely ignoring many other thrash bands that came from the same era. The riffs are mostly aggressive, sharp-tuned and churned out in true thrash fashion, vocals - with the addition of backing shouts, have lots of credibility for adding Great Awakening to the hottest pile of today´s new thrash bands - and overall this talented bunch´s sharp sense for capturing the true spirit and soul into their songs, all this makes me sincerely wish Great Awakening could become something bigger within a time (like Death Angel did with THE ULTRA VIOLENCE – and from that record on). And they will, no doubt about that.



THRASH TIL YOU DIE is more than a promising enough start from Great Awakening, and based on these 7 songs, it´s rather easy to predict a bright future ahead of them. Now just keep up the great work guys, and make your dreams come true for yourselves! ;o)