Toxic Trace
Torment

September 2011
Released: 2011, EBM Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz

For those of you who draw a line in the sand between Kreator’s EXTREME AGGRESSION and everything that came afterwards, boy are you in for a treat. Serbia’s Toxic Trace has a serious hard on for old school German thrash, particularly the first 4 albums from Mille Petrozza’s posse. As the saying goes, imitation is often the sincerest form of flattery, but it also helps that this Serbian power trio rips the S@$! out of their debut full length, TORMENT.



Yeah, the retro thrash thing has been hot n’ heavy for a while now, but there’s something about TORMENT that’s more endearing than the current glut of hipsters playing leather and spikes dress up time. Toxic Trace’s love for pre-90’s Kreator/Sodom/Destruction is just so beautifully honest, that it doesn’t even matter that the 9 tracks on TORMENT sound just like pre-90’s Kreator/Sodom/Destruction. And besides, pre-90’s Kreator/Sodom/Destruction freakin’ rules, and Toxic Trace reminds you why.



The tunes range from fast to faster to super fast, with chunks of meat spewing from the vocals and a drummer who sounds like he’s having an epileptic seizure, covering such important topics as occultism, human butchery, and religious hypocrisy. “Haunted,” “Slaughter,” “The Antichrist” and a ripping cover of “Flag of Hate” are the highlights of the disc, but there’s not a bad track among the bunch. Listening to Toxic Trace is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket of thrash on a cold night – it just feels…so…good. Check out Toxic Trace and TORMENT, available now through the good folks at EBM Records.