Havok - Time Is Up (2011)

Havok's return to wax sees the band up the anti and deliver a more aggressive style of thrash since their last outing (also reviewed elsewhere) but, like Merciless Death, it leaves me aching for something more original. Okay, so these thrash acts of today are eager to bring back that '80s feel and design, but if I want that then I'll go and put my Nuclear Assault, Defiance et al records on, and believe me, they thrash far harder than the acts of today. Havok immerse themselves in the '80s but seem so obsessed that they are forgetting to find themselves, instead reliant on those riffs which I've heard countless times before on Testament records, but Testament and the likes weren't simply derivative, they were monstrously talented and still to this day sound fresh, whereas bands such as Havok and Merciless Death, despite their hunger, drive and aggression, are, sadly, nothing more than pretenders, but respect to them for striving to re-enact a time I experienced, but it's just not the same.

6.5/10