Teratornis – Back From Extinction

Many of you who read this site may or may not know that I really despise this “new wave of thrash” thing going on, due to the heavy amount of clone bands popping up all over the place. I don’t mind if you play old-school sounding thrash metal but please do not go around acting like Paul Baloff and thinking you’re awesome because “thrash is back, WOOOOOOOOOO!!!”, it’s just very annoying and immature. I do, however, give my total support to the bands out there who take the time to put together some enjoyable songs and not copy everything that everyone else is doing. These non-sheep bands are what give me hope for thrash metal. Teratornis are one of these bands.

Teratornis are a 4-piece from Sydney, Australia, who play thrash (well, duh!), and they do a pretty fuckin’ good job at it. There’s plenty of obvious influences to be heard on this CD (mainly Coroner and Destruction, who are clearly the team favourites here. And of course, all the usual suspects, Big 4, German trio, etc etc) but I wouldn’t call these guys a “throwback tribute to the glory days of thrash” type band, as they actually have something cool going on here and don’t sound like just another group of wannabes who wish it was the 80’s all over again.



The EP kicks off with an absolute smasher of a track titled “Rise From the Tombs”. It’s the kind of track you want at the start of a thrash release, it catches your attention and wakes you up for what’s to come. Fast and catchy riffs combined with gruff vocals, gang choruses and fast drumming are all there, hell, there’s even a killer drum/guitar solo section. This song ticks all the boxes required to make a classic thrash tune. If you’re not headbanging by the end of this then there’s something wrong with ya!

The second song “Notomellis” again gets down to business pretty quickly. It’s all about the riffs here, which are technical yet melodic, catchy and not wanky or boring in the slightest amount. These young fellas are damn good at their instruments, and it really shows in this song. Definitely one for the Coroner fans!

Now for the obligatory self-titled song that most thrash bands have! “Teratornis” doesn’t fuck around, the boys are straight away in your face with a thrash attack on this track. It’s all about the good old fashion no-bullshit intensity! This song is about a pre-historic giant bird (a Teratornis) coming “back from extinction” and wrecking all kinds of havoc. This is a good friendly violent fun song, and probably the most straightforward one on the EP. I’d have to say this is my favourite song from this release, too.

“Catacalysmic Destruction” is the closing (and longest) track. It starts off with a sample intro with some guy talking about nuclear war, which leads into some mid-paced chugging building into faster riffs and an intense tale of death, carnage and destruction following a nuclear holocaust. Funnily enough given the title, Destruction influences are all over this one! Plenty of variety abounds throughout “Catcalysmic Destruction”.

In summary, this is a damn good effort at playing some solid thrash without sounding stale or generic. Yes there a plenty of band comparisons to be made, but then again, thrash metal is not about reinventing the wheel anymore. Chuck this in the player, grab a beer and go nuts!

5/5

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