• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

I really liked Fallout Rituals, the last album by speed metal freaks Seax, so I was excited to get the promo for their 2022 album Speed Inferno. Speed metal isn’t a genre that brooks a lot of innovation, but Seax have managed to hit the sweet spot between speed and catchiness and also create an album that doesn’t sound completely like Fallout Rituals Part 2. Seax let it be known from the start they haven’t slowed down, unleashing the album’s title track, which makes the stuff on Haunting the Chapel sound like traditional metal. Other blazers include "Radiation Overload" and "Rising Evil," tracks that should keep your pulse redlining. As I said, Seax haven’t just rehashed things they’ve done before and their songwriting continues to improve with songs becoming increasingly intentional and constructed in ways that make them more than just vehicles for fast riffing and rolling double bass drumming. "Return to the Steel" has some well thought out vocal lines and tighter riffs while "Heading for a Road" retains all the band’s energy and rawness but also has a lot of atmosphere and weight you don’t typically get from speed metal. I am reminded of the speed and unassuming precision of Death Angel’s The Ultra-Violence as well as the melody and vocal work of Exciter’s Violence & Force when I listen to Speed Inferno. It might not be quite the tour de force of naked, thrashing speed that Fallout Rituals was but, man, it is damn close. If you like speed metal, you need this one.