Suppressive Fire unleash the heavy artillery with Invasion, a thrash metal-paced crash course through four theaters of World War II. The band tells us Invasion was meant to be a full-length album until the pandemic mucked up the entire world's schedule. Instead, this EP's swift tempo is the perfect shot of adrenaline to keep the listener entranced on the battlefield. Each song pummels, the riffs are plentiful and memorable, and it's streaming in full here at Metal Injection, so rejoice, my dogs of war!
The onset of the first track, "Siege," based on the siege of Bastogne during the Battle Of The Bulge, opens with metered, clean guitar strokes, a stirring crescendo like bomb flashes on the horizon until the firepower rains down at full force with rollicking blast beats. The ballistic drum cadences, rapaciously laid down by Scott Schopler, provides the ambiance of towering gun turrets as they shoot into oblivion.
"Armored Division" grooves with that Bolt Thrower swagger, a fitting mid-paced tempo for a song that details the steady death roll of tank warfare. However, Suppressive Fire bring enough character to sound like their own war beast. Vocalist Devin Kelley (who also serves at arms in Cemetery Filth and Dire Hatred) screeches with a slimy snarl. His vocal performance is reminiscent of Tomas Lindberg's corrosive fry. Kelley's tormented outbursts make the lyrics understandable, which further paint the blood-red horrors of the battlefield in more vivid tones.
"I have seen the face of death / Women and children buried." So goes the catchy chorus to the title track, which tells of the Invasion Of Poland from the perspective of the Poles. The aforementioned lyrics exemplify Suppressive Fire's ability to cover war lyrics with personal intensity. The scathing shrieks seem to come from the most primal depths of the soul, and impart the sense of insanity, fear, and mindlessness in the face of impending death, rather than saber-rattling war anthems.
"Taste Of Shrapnel" offers one of the gnarliest call-and-response sections in recent memory. It's the type of visceral performance that really captures the torment of being ripped to pieces on all sides by shards of metal, which, according to the band, really happened to a doomed group of British soldiers who serve as the song's inspiration. While this song's source material is cruel, its execution is just too sweet to ignore. One might very well spit out shrapnel from behind an infectious grin.
Invasion often echoes two German thrash bands, Destruction and Sodom, from the off-kilter hammer-on guitar parts of the former, to the one-two combination of oom-pah style drums with mosh breakdowns of the latter. Suppressive Fire's bombastic assault melded to its World War II theme reminds me of another conceptual war album, Sodom's M-16 album, which is definitely one of the highest damn compliments this author can bestow upon a thrash band.
This quintet from Raleigh, North Carolina dually possess a black metal sensibility, from the frenzied drum work to the venom spit forth by the coarse vocals, which proves Suppressive Fire is more than the musical equivalent of leftover pizza.
Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust gives this hell storm the proper sonic polishing in the mixing and mastering realm. Invasion rocks with enough clarity to hear all the manic guitar-shredding front and center, but coated with a little roughness. My only criticism of this record is how the songs close. They either fade out, abruptly or promptly kiss out without any bravado. I appreciate the brevity of a band who knows how to edit themselves, but this harrowing subject matter might have benefited from a more theatrical climax to conclude their songs.
Minor critiques aside, Suppressive Fire's Invasion is a crisp and self-contained journey. It packs a riff arsenal in its 17 minutes and stays fresh for repeat listens. Prepare to be shell-shocked.
