Trallery - "Spirit on Stage" (Art Gates Records, 2017)

Band: Trallery
Title: Spirit on Stage
Genre: Thrash Metal
Year: 21st July 2017
Time: 62 min
Rating: 88/100













Second live album in few years for the Spanish thrash metal trio Trallery (pronounced as "tragedy"). Titled "Spirit on Stage", this live album is a little bit particular because it was released by Art Gates Records only in a digital version and, in addition, the same label published on YouTube, some days ago, the DVD full show of this album, so you can see the big enthusiasm of the audience in front of Trallery but also their amazing energy on stage. And believe me that Trallery, born as a Metallica tribute band in 2010, deserves a fuckin' lot!


"Spirit on Stage" consist of the beauty of 14 tracks (but, at the end, they are 13 because the "Intro" and the first real song "Spiritless" are connected in a single one) taken from the two full-lenght albums released by Trallery so far, and it was recorded at Es Gremi in Mallorca on 21st November 2016. All the numbers show a band able to express a great personality through an imaginative style to conceive the thrash metal genre. In fact, Trallery mix clear old-school influences (Slayer, the groove metal of Pantera and, obviously, Metallica - in particular, some ultra-aggressive and scrapping parts of "Hunt to Kill" seem to be taken from "Hit the Lights"!) with more modern and unpredictable solutions in the vein of bands such as Gojira or Machine Head.

More deeply, the singer/bassplayer Humberto Pol spew forth not only rude and growling vocals but also more clean and melodic vocal lines. The guitarist Biel Gayà is truly fukken amazing because he creates riffs with some strange ideas (like in "White Shadow"; watch its video during the show below), showing also virtuoso skills during the solos, that are often characterized by an excellent melodic taste even able to move emotionally the listeners. Instead, the drummer Sebas Barcelo (that was recently into the live line-up of the well known Spanish thrash metal band Crisix) is very good to enrich the musical discourse with creative patterns (sometimes focused on the tom-tom drums) also during the fast attacks. In addition, the band deliver even very atmospheric and slow moments (as already in the case of the first song "Spiritless"), perfect to allow to Biel to play his awesome solos, that, strangely, are rarely into the fast passages.

Since the aforementioned features, the tracklist is incredibly various. So, it ranges from violent numbers like "Hunt to Kill", "White Shadow" (especially during its first half; it's notable to mention that White Shadow was the moniker used by Trallery in occasion of their very first shows) or the ultra-neurotic "Catalepsy" (that ends the same album with a strong Slayer-ish vibe) to more melodic thrash metal outbursts with singalong choruses such as "Scavenger Crow", and from tough mid-tempos like "Evil Pride" to...real ballads with some clean guitar parts and arpeggios as "Hollow Stare" (amazing!) and the following "Time is Over". It's important to underline that the songs that ranges from "The Attraction Remains" to "Keep Your Eyes Open" (with the two mentioned ballads in the middle) are mostly focused on mid/slow tempos. So I think that these 4 songs stops a bit the energetic intensity of the fast songs but, fortunately, the last 3 tracks of the album sometimes reach levels of pure violence!

In fact, it isn't a case if an unchained guy of the audience runs out on stage just during "Hunt to Kill"! I have to say that the interaction between the band and the public is very good, also because Humberto invite sometimes the people under the stage to do the moshpit, and it's effectively happens, for instance, during the manic attacks of "Collateral Damage"!

No other words are needed, folks! We are talking about a band at its best with a thrash metal able to be, at the same time, creative, melodic, aggressive and even emotionally atmospheric, so I recommend "Spirit on Stage" without any fuckin' doubts also because, for the people that knew nothing about Trallery until this review, it's a good way to know them and their discography. And now, I'm going to end this review with two news: 1) Trallery recently shot a video (watch it above) for their song "Unknown Confusion" (extracted from the second album "Spiritless"); 2) the band, along with the US death metallers Skeletal Remains, will support Angelus Apatrida for their European tour from 4th to 22nd May 2018 (more details on a specific news on these pages).

THRASH 'TIL FUCKIN' DEATH!

Tracklist:

1 - Intro / Spiritless
2 - Abominate
3 - Evil Pride
4 - White Shadow
5 - Scavenger Crow
6 - Unknown Confusion
7 - The Attraction Remains
8 - Hollow Stare
9 - Time Is Over
10 - Keep Your Eyes Open
11 - Hunt to Kill
12 - Collateral Damage
13 - Catalepsy

Line-up:

Humberto Pol - vocals/bass
Biel Gayà - guitars
Sebas Barcelo - drums

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/TRALLERY-Thrash-Metal/191694654270978
Art Gates Records: http://www.artgatesrecords.com/