Teronation are a Swizz 4-piece that have released two albums' worth of Thrash Metal since 2016, with their second release, Bloody Mess, being the most recent. As it turns out, that title perfectly sums up my feelings for this release, because, on the one hand, there's plenty I like about it, but on the other it has some glaring flaws holding it back.
Let's start with the positives. The musicianship on here is generally high-quality, with aggressive, razor-sharp riffs that have an exciting melodic edge to them, and the songs are cohesive and jammed full of hooks and variety to keep you engaged throughout. Every track on here is an ass-kicking dose of Thrash in some way or another, but the standouts for me are "Nowhere to Hide", which sounds akin to Peter Tägtgren's Pain if they went Thrash, and "Death Dealer", which caught me entirely off guard when singer/guitarist Siro Giger clearly shouted "Yy, kaa, koo, nee...", which is Finnish for "One, two, three, four..." It's not often that I hear my native tongue spoken by anyone outside of my own countrymen, let me tell you.
Speaking of vocals, those are the weakest part for me. Siro isn't bad per se, but he works more in that shouty modern style akin to later Lost Society and Pain that normally makes me break out in hives whenever I hear them. To his credit, he suits the band very well, and even I can't say he makes anything intolerable, his style simply isn't my cup of booze.
Overall, if you like modern Thrash and don't mind it putting emphasis on the modern from time to time, Bloody Mess will do you nicely.
