A Review of the Album Nuclear Thrashing Attack By Japanese Thrash Metal Band Fastkill

If the first album by this Japanese thrash metal band Fastkill was any indication, that album got a below average score from me. And then, I decided to give their second studio album Nuclear Thrashing Attack a review and analysis. Given how heavy metal in Japan may be vastly underappreciated at least there is someone here that is going to write about it. That stated, Fastkill is a thrash metal band that has the highest screeching vocals that any human being will hear and they are fast in their speed and they do not stop with this speed as it continues in all of their albums.

Fastkill is also one of those bands that kind of lives up to its name because their albums are short in length in addition to the fast riffs and screeching high vocals.

The vocals are by far the worst aspect about this band other than the fact that the band's name is cheesy. Obviously, the music we have on here is fast as heck and what was the sense in having the other part in the band's title? This band is the weakest Japanese thrash metal band that I have heard and it is largely because of the vocals and the less than desirable lyrical content. We are still discussing this band from Tokyo because an avid metal fan will be passionate enough to write about it.

The album starts with the medium fast and heavy song Nuclear Devastation which has elements of the band Slayer in it as well as The Haunted. Then, oh my goodness the vocals really take off and there is this super high screeching tone in the song Bloodbath and this one is not as good as the one written by Canadian thrash metal band Annihilator. Then the riffing changes slightly and I hear a more modern version of Slayer in this song. I even hear the influence of 1980s Florida death metal in this song. Basically this album is full of relentless speed followed by massive vocal shrieks that most of us cannot even comprehend. How is it possible for any human to have screams at this high of a vocal pitch? Lyrically, the band Fastkill is similar to bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under. So we can say that these guys are extreme thrash metal with death metal style lyrics. In a way, it can be said that this Tokyo area band is unique in that it combines high screeching vocals with extreme lyrics while also putting in a punk influence. Annihilation Betrayer lyrically tells us that the rich side with the rich while trying to crush those that are weak as the poor are left to fend for themselves. Another quality that is so prevalent on this album is the constant screams that are let out by vocalist Toshio Komori. I've heard of screams when it comes to thrash metal but this kind of frequency of these screams let out by him are, well, over the top ridiculous. The other thing about the lyrics in this album are that they are highly negative but the music and technicality is decent. I wouldn't say that Fastkill offers elite thrash metal but their music is FAST and it offers a little bit of punk influence and their message basically is that we are out to play thrash metal that is so fast that it will blow your eardrums open.

A first full listen through this album shows me that this is a slight improvement from the first album in spite of the very bad vocals so the rating for this album will be at a 70%.