Thrashman’s Metal Pick Of The Week: It’s All About Toxic Holocaust’s New Album “Conjure And Command”

It doesn't get much better than old school thrash in my opinion (hence the on-air name) and Toxic Holocaust can bust out the old school jams with the best of 'em.

Joel Grind's been doing this for a while but now he actually has a full time band with him that records their parts instead of Joel doing everything. Make no mistake about it...Joel still writes everything but having some other musicians to record with has opened things up and given him the freedom to write more challenging stuff that he maybe couldn't do. It paid off.

I really dig the earlier stuff but this is easily Toxic Holocaust's best album to date. I think the reason why is that Conjure And Command is more metal than punk. I'm drawn to metallic riffs and the album is chock full of 'em. Check out the straight-up Venom worship of "Bitch"....a perfect example of fist-pumping, neck-wrecking metal and a tune that I can listen to over and over and over.

Don't get me wrong, the album still sounds like Toxic Holocaust and long time fans won't be disappointed. It's quite obvious you're listening to Toxic Holocaust from the very opening of the album with "Judgment Awaits You". The thing is, he's really opened up the sound a little and honestly it has a little more maturity than the earlier releases. Conjure And Command is Toxic Holocaust in their prime and will damn sure be hard to top but you never know what Joel's got up his sleeve.

My favorite tunes on the album are the aforementioned "Bitch" along with "Agony of the Damned", "Red Winter" and "Nowhere to Run". Crack you a cold one, spark it up or do whatever it is you do and listen to Conjure And Command at maximum volume...trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Conjure And Command is out now on Relapse Records.