Meet Melbourne’s Meshiaak: your new favourite heavy metal supergroup. Featuring ex-4ARM frontman Danny Camilleri and Teramaze guitarist Dean Wells, alongside bassist Nick Walker and US drum demigod Jon Dette (Slayer, Anthrax, Testament, Iced Earth) this alliance of metal missionaries have honed a modern sound with some classic ‘80s influences on debut, Alliance of Thieves.
Chronicles of the Dead is six minutes of no-bullshit thrash fury. You can practically smell the circle pit stench through your speakers. Dean Wells’ caustic riffs meld with Dette’s propulsive percussion, which drives the song like a Lamborghini. Slow down? No way.Meshiaak shift it up a gear on It Burns At Both Ends. This one’s epic – the kind of rousing anthemic battle cry Jon Snow and his troops might have jammed before the Battle of the Bastards.
Need groove? Like filthy Lamb of God-going-for-broke groove? I Am Among You has you covered. And how about those solos on Drowning, Fading, Falling? Dean Wells is head shred master, serving up sizzling lead chops and freshly cooked shredghetti en mass. Meanwhile, Last Breath Taken and Maniacal sound like Slayer and Testament’s ill-tempered lovechildren.
While the momentum is solid for the most part, the album does stumble over a few cheesy hurdles. The title track’s unashamedly grandiose outro slips into cringeworthy territory, while At The Edge of the World is swollen with so many metal clichés that it sounds like they’re parodying the genre – except they’re straight-faced. Your dad would probably dig the last song too, complete with its soppy Nickleback-isms.
Some minor blemishes aside, this is good ol’ fashioned thrash metal that skips along the stylistic cornerstones laid down by the Big 4 while injecting some crushing modern flair and finesse. Horns up.
BY JACK PILVEN
