“Kill, rave, trends teaching our metal law
War, fight, death, gaining all hell's control
Scream, loud, noise decibel massacre
Drink booze die, hell is the final goal”

What do you get when you mix aggression, metal, some killer riffs and a bit (or more likely, a lot) of beer? Hellish Metal 
Dominate.

Drunkard hails from Greece – specifically Thessaloniki (I think). My reaction was probably similar to yours; since when did 
thrash bands come from Greece? (haha!). The band formed in 1999 and to date has released;

- One full length (Hellish Metal Dominate, 2004);
- a demo called Alcoholic Thrash Attack in 2000 and;
- a two-song promo in 2003.

When I first caught wind of Drunkard, I was mildly intrigued, but not particularly interested. It was at the time of the 
ultimatemetal.com thrash revival, which ended up being more an obnoxious obsession. Don’t get me wrong, my favourite genre’s
are death and THRASH, but the whole thrash revival just went overboard. Even at first spin, I wasn’t immediately impressed.
It took a solid listen of the whole album to form the opinion I have now.

This album, released towards the latter half of last year is pure fucking thrash intensity. Gritty, buzz saw riffs crossed 
with slurred thrash-growls and a flurry of drums smashing, crashing and blast listeners away. It has the offbeat blitzing 
time signatures of all good thrash albums, but it is done in a way like no other I’ve heard in that it is subtler. Similarly, 
not for one second does the album flinch at being melodic, yet the inherent tuning of the guitars is abrasive and aggressive 
yet there is an element of richness about it, not heard on something like Hell Awaits Pleasure to Kill.

Hellish Metal Dominate is essentially what 1988 sounds like now. It follows the precedents set by its predecessors without 
being an imitation of them. It has a clear modern production, without overemphasizing bass lines. The riffs are played with 
total clarity and the solos are played in a sloppy yet precise manner such that it oozes booze and articulates anarchy.

This is not one for the soft at heart. It rapes feeble trend whores and kills crushed velvet suit wearing poseurs. Vocalist 
and bassist Sawas growls out commands of ultimate violence and terror upon disco sluts, wimps and declares absolute defiance.
HMD is awe-inspiring, neck breaking metal chaos!

Never have I heard an album make me want to grab a beer and fight as much as this does. From start to finish, it is absolute 
mind-blowing destruction! Picking favourite tracks is pointless – they all rule. It’s just a matter of figuring out which 
lyrics are the most offensive to scream and wreck your neck to.

Now let’s spill some disco-fucking-blood!