NATIONAL SUICIDE - Massacre Elite

Artist:  National Suicide
Album:  Massacre Elite
Year:  2017
Genre:  Thrash Metal

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”  Oscar Wilde’s infamous statement carries heavy weight and undeniable truth when related to thrash metal of the mid 1980s.  Like any wave of a movement that starts to gain momentum and a larger audience, the untraveled path and popularity of the 80s first glimpse at extreme metal had musicians stagediving onto the bandwagon Metallica and Venom constructed and that was being propelled forward by now legends Slayer, Megadeth, Celtic Frost, Exodus, Kreator, Destruction, and Anthrax.  Some bands took the influence and forged monumental records that are now revered and worshipped by fans across the globe and have gone on to influence the next generation.  Yet, if you dig deep into the early catalogs of Metal Blade, Combat, Megaforce and New Renaissance Records you can pile up the corpses of bands that just didn’t live up to the standards set by the architects of the scene.  For 40 years now, bands have both intentionally and unintentionally ripped off their predecessors with huge degrees of success and failure.  This brings us to 2017 and the band National Suicide, a band that seemingly has zero issue with wearing Xerox copies of their influences sewn deeply into their denim vest.  So why give a band that boarders on plagiarism the time of day?  To put it simply, this album is fucking awesome!

Let’s just get this out of the way.  National Suicide are Exodus and Overkill.  There is no getting around it.  No, they don’t just, “sort of sound like” or have moments where they, “remind you of” those bands.  They are what would happen if cloning existed.  My assumption is that National Suicide know this and do not care whatsoever because they run with it every second of this recording.  The truth of it is that there is nothing mediocre about this record and they do an incredible job of doing their forefathers proud.  It’s the same way Guesome emulates Scream Bloody Gore Death era in a very fine fashion.  So many of the retro thrash bands are competent, but the novelty wears off  quickly. National Suicide prove that not all copycats are disposable facsimiles.

Massacre Elite is modernized, 80s Bay Area inspired thrash metal.  It has the speed, the talent, the fury, and all the necessary aesthetics right down to the band’s Nuclear Assault appropriated logo.  The music is razor-sharp and instantly brings to mind Fabulous Disaster and Impact Is Imminent by Exodus, but without Steve Sousa’s lame, follow-right-along-with-the-guitar vocals which severely took the quality of those records down.  The band slashes and burns through 9 songs in a quick 35 minutes and they don’t waste a moment.  The guitar players are playing all the right riffs and the drummer is crushing with the rhythms.  The bass player?  Pretty much non-existent…just like in the 80s!  The songs conjure images of flip-brims, white high tops, sweaty circle pits and tons of long hair banging against the stage in the front row. 

So where do Overkill come into this?  First, let’s take a slight offramp.  For me, Overkill are one of the most dependable bands in heavy metal.  Since 1983 the have been cranking out albums with consistent high quality.  Of course, one can find a few albums that aren’t as strong as others, but they have survived the test of time and remain a dominant force as a band.  Overkill have always stood out with the vocals of the legend Bobby Blitz due to his unique tone and delivery.  Nobody sounded like Mr. Blitz.  Well, that was until Sefano Mini surfaced.  Wow does he sound like Blitz!  There are stylistic and some tonal differences, but it’s as close as anyone is going to get to the original.  The vocals are such a welcomed change from all the Hetfield / Araya / Petrozza replicas in what are seen as “retro” thrash bands.  Although he doesn’t take his lyrics too seriously, he belts out a convincing, memorable performance right alongside his bandmates and outdoes himself as compared to their other two releases.

No two ways about it, this album rages!  If this was released in the golden era of thrash, it would be put up there with greats like The Legacy, Survive and Extreme Aggression.  That doesn’t mean it can’t have its place in history but it tough to be a candidate for a Mount Rushmore-esque list as a modern band.  National Suicide do an admirable and authentic job of bringing the past back to life.

Listen to "Take Me To The Dive Bar" here.