Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Onslaught - Killing Peace - 2007 - Candlelight

Track Listing1. Burn 2. Killing Peace 3. Destroyer of Worlds 4. Pain 5. Prayer for the Dead 6. Tested to Destruction 7. Twisted Jesus 8. Planting Seeds of Hate 9. Shock 'N' Awe

Comebacks are a mysterious fig, as one wise man once coined the phrase. Some comebacks are like the Vanilla Monster Malt after having a double-decker bacon cheese at Five Guys (Famous Burgers and Fries... if you haven't had, get there). At first taste... delicious. You are excited when the ice cream hits your stomach, but before your gut registers how overfull it is from the double (not to mention the fries), you've sucked the whole fucker down and then, ultimately, are sick to your stomach. It seemed like a good idea at the time but is just... too much. Rather than too much sugar on top of too much fat, the comebacks in question are too much nostalgia, and not enough substance. A band you wanted to come back so bad that the initial excitement blinded you to the fact that the album isn’t quite as good (and often, much worse) than you had hoped.

Yet other comebacks are like craving McDonald's. It happens to me, about once every 14 months. A Big Mac, fries, and orange soda. I know it is a bad idea. I know it will make me feel like I've been rolled in sun-baked, week old vomit... but I want it. It takes only moments to devour, and even less time for regret to set in (I call it McRegret). That taste on the back of the tongue. Searching, the same tongue that is searching my mouth for bits of food so I can spit them out unceremoniously onto the floor. The McComeback is one that you fully expect to be crap, but just have to hear anyway.

Then there is the rare Fuddruckers comeback. The perfect burger. The perfect fries. The perfect onion rings. The fresh-baked bun. The Boylan’s Red Birch Beer on tap. It pleases me to no end to say that Onslaught’s Killing Peace is just such a feast.

Despite their (relatively) advanced years, Onslaught have mopped the floor with every “I wasn’t born when Reign In Blood came out” nu-thrash metal band that is disgracing the legacy these days with this, their glorious comeback. A band that never really achieved much more than “cult” status, perhaps that is part of the reason why Onslaught’s efforts come off as so earnest rather than a band attempting to cash in. Hard to do when there really was no cash to begin with.

Killing Peace serves as a fine lesson for the wannabes in what is missing from modern thrash metal… HOOKS. Catchy songs. Choruses. Songs that stand out from one another. Onslaught come out swinging with “Burn” and pace things perfectly throughout Killing Peace so that over the 44 minutes, it never gets tiresome, and these guys are such good writers that the material never touches on the cliché. This is legit, heavy, quality thrash metal of the highest order. Old school fans and new blood alike, pick this one up for an example of how it is done RIGHT.


--Al Kikuras 07.10.07