Mortal Strike – For the Loud and the Aggressive (10 Year Anniversary Edition)

Released exactly a month ago via ‘Running Wild Productions’, For the Loud and the Aggressive (10 Year Anniversary Edition) is the re-release of Morbid Strike’ debut album supplemented with a cover version of Tankard’s “Zombie Attack” and four live tracks, recorded at the ‘Eindhoven Metal Meeting 2017’.

The five thrashers from Vienna have have been in the business for more than a decade now and are an integral part of the local scene, where every thrash fan in Austria knows its name. For those of you still unfamiliar with this band I can tell that even though the quintet started their fights in 2010, they have only released one album so far, The Loud And The Aggressive. The current line-up of Mortal Strike looks like this; Matthias Gerstl (vocals), Christian “Chrir” Nielsen (guitars), Christoph “Etzi” Etzmannsdorfer (guitars), Dominique Heine (bass) & Max Scheiber (drums). In 2017 at the aforementioned ‘Eindhoven Metal Meeting 2017’ they decided to make a name widely known and internationally recognizible again.

Thus, ten years after its initial release, The Loud And The Aggressive has been re-released, and after three spins I must say that it has definitely not lost any of its charm. These guys remain true to their style and continue to spit a thrash metal fury upon the hungry masses. The Loud And The Aggressive remains exciting for the whole ten regular songs, but I like the fact that they’ve not just re-released their old material without offering anything new, as these few additional tracks makes it a worthy collection of thrash metal songs that any fan of the likes of Tankard, Destruction, Exodus, Overkill, Whiplash, Slayer and similar thrash metal giants.

Mortal Strike have penned an album whose song material relies on a very strong fundament. The Loud And The Aggressive sounds aggressive, ferocious, yet mature, homogeneous and coherent. The debut displays a constant flow with an absolutely flawless display of thrash metal. For me, personally there are two particular stand-out tracks, namely; “Strike” and the following “One Against All”, (placed on the seventh and eighth position of the running order), where the guys deliver their best, with massive high-class riffing, absolutely flawless bass lines, superb thrash vocals and hellish and punishing drums. A cover version of Tankard’s “Zombie Attack” (featuring guest vocals from Encalve singer – Rainer Höllersberger) also points in the right direction, and once again ot’s nice to see the Austrians praise their idols.

The production is massive and it evokes the old-school sense of generating a fast, aggressive atmosphere throughout the majority of the skillfully crafted tracks on display here. The same goes for the artistically arranged logo/cover of this Austrian thrash gang.

Although, a little bonus in form of four tight live tracks, is really nice addition to this already solid thrash metal record, but it would be nice to get some new material again. Since the guys, credible representatives of the genre’s primordial spirit, seems to be motivated again, I hope they’ll enter a studio soon again. Until that happens listen to this masterpiece of a debut (with a few additional tracks) and watch the live video for the album opener “For The Loud And The Aggressive” below.

Tracklist For The Loud And Aggressive:

1. For The Loud And The Aggressive
2. Here Comes The Tank
3. Outburst Of Fury
4. Against The Wall
5. MG 42
6. Smash the Tyrants – Storm The Gates
7. Strike
8. One Against All
9. The Tides Of War Arise (Pt. 1)
10. Unleash the Hounds Of War (Pt. 2)
11. Zombie Attack (Tankard)
12. Strike (Live)
13. Against The Wall (Live)
14. Here Comes The Tank (Live)
15. For The Loud And Aggressive (Live)

For further information on this particular release don’t hesitate to visit https://mortalstrike.bandcamp.com/album/for-the-loud-and-the-aggressive