#exumer

Onslaught: The Force (1986)

After stumbling through a rudimentary caricature of thrash metal on 1985's Power from Hell, former-hardcore-punks-crossing-over, Onslaught, proved to be quick studies ahead of their now 40-year-old sophomore album, The Force.

Now fronted by new singer Sy Keeler, guitarists Nige Rockett and Jase Stallard, bassist Paul Mahoney, and drummer Steve Grice had obviously done their homework, practiced their moves, and were ready to impress other "students" with a convincing thrash facsimile.

Unfortunately, accurate imitation doesn't equal imagination, let alone originality, so some of these forceful but slick, almost antiseptic, moshers saddled with stock titles like "Metal Forces," "Demoniac," and "Thrash Till the Death" could easily slip away from your memory banks.

But there were certainly "stickier" exceptions like "Let There Be Death," the ritualistic "Flame of the Antichrist," and the exceptionally violent "Fight with the Beast," which, despite some derivative, cartoonish lyrics, could still put a grin on your face and your fist in the air (or in someone else's face).

If there's anything distinctly peculiar about The Force, it's that somebody must have told these former hardcore boys that thrash songs were supposed to be long, because they obeyed this brief to a fault with six out of seven songs running over six or seven minutes.

Alas, no one told Keeler that piercing falsettos were fast going out of style, but we can hardly blame him when even Tom Araya had a few screeches cocked and loaded for Reign in Blood (including the all-time-classic "Angel of Death"), released a few months later.

Come to think of it, Slayer's influence is especially strong on the occult lyrics, haunted howls, and tortuous riffing of the otherwise undistinguished "Contract in Blood."

So I don't want to sound too critical of Onslaught, because there were, of course, innumerable thrash bands slam-dancing across the late '80s with similarly little interest in reinventing the wheel, and even more teenage fans like me who weren't asking them too!

Therefore, if you can appreciate competent, cleanly produced thrash (think Heathen, Annihilator) played with proficiency more so than raw, savage abandon (e.g. Whiplash, Destruction, Holy Terror), The Force leaves little to be desired.

What's more, any way you slice it, Onslaught's second long-player undoubtedly remains one of the Top Ten -- maybe Top Five -- thrash metal albums contributed by Great Britain to the 1980s, and that's saying something.

But it didn't say enough to propel the group to new heights, and only Rockett and Grice remained by 1989, when they were forced by their label to recruit former Grim Reaper vocalist Steve Grimmett for Onslaught's much-delayed third LP, In Search of Sanity.

By '91 it was all over, but Rockett eventually relaunched the band with a new line-up in 2004, and joined the "oldies metal" circuit (can't believe I just wrote that, but it's not inaccurate) by delivering the occasional new music and sporadic touring.