#hazzerd

Friday night with Hazzerd. Looking forward to a new album from these guys in 2023!

HAZZERD - Waking Nightmare (Official Music Video)

Hazzerd - Delirium Canadian thrash band Hazzerd is a band that I’ve heard of, but I’ve never listened to, at least until now. I decided to check out their newest album, 2020′s Delirium. This is their sophomore album, and I tend to perk my ears up at bands with more than one album, unless their debut is getting a lot of buzz, only because most debut albums aren’t great, although a lot of them do show a lot of potential. I’m not familiar with this band, or their debut album, but if I can go by this record, it seems like it might have been rough around the edges thrash with some potential. That’s how a lot of burgeoning thrash bands seem to start off with, but they get better with time. These guys have some buzz, but nothing outside the thrash scene. They’re not in the same league as bands like Power Trip or Municipal Waste, bands that are known outside of the thrash scene because they transcend it. There are a lot of bands within the scene that are very prolific, whether they’re newer bands or classic bands, but they don’t have the same name recognition outside the thrash scene at large. There are a handful of bands that could potential become the next Power Trip or Municipal Waste, but are Hazzerd one of them? I didn’t know what to expect going into this album, but I was slightly surprised by what I found, both in a good and bad way. This album is solid, and if you’re a thrash fan, especially not a picky one, you’re going to enjoy this. These guys take the Bay Area sound from the 1980s, emulating bands like Exodus, Testament, Megadeth, Slayer, and Metallica, and they make it somewhat modern. There’s a difference between bands that copy that sound, and bands that understand what that sound is all about, so they ultimately sound as though they’re a forgotten band from that era. That’s how Power Trip sounds to me, especially 2017′s Nightmare Logic, but Delirium doesn’t hit that for me at all, and if anything, it sounds like they’re just trying to copy that classic Bay Area sound. It works fine, and like I said, if you’re not picky, you’ll enjoy this. The instrumentation is really solid, including a lot of riffs and solos (which is why almost everyone listens to thrash), the vocals have that 80s sound to them, and their vocalist has that 80s bite to his style that works pretty well. It’s just that they don’t do anything super unique with their sound, or at the very least, they don’t take those classic elements and make it all their own. A lot of bands just want to copy that sound just because it’s cool, and there’s nothing wrong with that to an extent, but they don’t go above and beyond. The other major problem I have with this record is that it’s tonally strange. What I mean by that is that its tone is very confusing; this album doesn’t really know what it wants to be, both musically and lyrically. The first song that opens up this record is a very politically charged song about religion, ultimately about how religion is a fraud and most people use it as a crutch to do heinous things, or to justify said heinous things, but they don’t add anything or say anything new to that subject matter. The same issue I have with this record is almost the same issue I have with Havok’s V, which I just reviewed (although I have that issue with Havok in general). Havok has this issue of writing very politically and socially charged lyrics that they think are more profound than they really are, and they come off very preachy and obnoxious, instead of saying something interesting and poignant. Hazzerd doesn’t come off like they know more than you, or they are saying that no one’s ever heard before (even though everyone has), it’s just that they’re not adding anything unique to a certain point or idea. A lot of the songs on this record follow that formula, at least being more politically charged, but towards the two-thirds mark, there’s a song called “Dead In The Shed” that takes a note from the Municipal Waste playbook and the song is really stupid, fun, and off the wall, so my question is, why isn’t the whole album like this? it’s easily the best song on the album, both lyrically and musically (there’s a kickass solo in the song, and the riff that runs through it is great), because they just let loose. The song is silly, but in the best way possible. It sounds just like Municipal Waste, but a bit more technical, which is honestly very cool, so I’d love to hear more of that. The overall tone is just very uneven, and it takes me out of the album every time I hear it, but what doesn’t help is that the album is also 49 minutes long. That’s not a horrible length on its own, but an hour-long thrash album is a bit much. I’ve talked about in another review, which I believe was my Warbringer one, but I like my thrash short, sweet, and to the point. This album isn’t that. A lot of the songs run together, and it just feels very bloated, especially when the last song called “The End” is just a three-minute acoustic instrumental. It sounds cool, but did we need a three-minute version of this? It could have been a minute long, and it would have been a nice way to close out the album. The thing is, the album itself is really good, so my issues with this album aren’t huge, but they’re enough to where I just haven’t been going back to this much. I like it when I hear it, but I’ve got other stuff that I’ve been coming back to more, so why would I come back to this? Now if they make more songs like “Dead In The Shed,” or they turned into a straightup crossover band on their next album, I’m all in. I’d love to hear a whole album of songs like that.

- necro69mancer -

Just discovered Hazzerd, what a debut album this is. It’s the first time I’ve sat and listened to a full album in years. 

#MPVpatchchallenge Day 7: Album cover. Here’s a patch celebrating our beloved band Hazzerd’s 2020 album, Delirium. High quality thrash metal from Canada. 🤘 @hazzerdthrash #hazzerd #patches #bandpatches #thrashmetal #battlejacket #metalmerch https://www.instagram.com/p/CI34p3Lpajm/?igshid=1dztzajue5gmy