Attacker is a heavy metal band from the USA formed during the mid-eighties heavy metal explosion, releasing two albums – ‘Battle At Helm’s Deep’ (1985) and ‘The Second Coming’ (1988) – before disbanding the following year! Reforming twelve years later, the band have gone on to release a further five albums – ‘Soul Taker’ (2004), ‘The Unknown’ (2006), ‘Giants Of Canaan’ (2013), ‘Sins Of The World’ (2016), and ‘The God Particle’ (2024)…
…featuring eight songs across thirty-three very heavy minutes! Over the course of the last forty plus years, we’ve faced ‘The God Of Thunder’ (Kiss), heard that ‘God Hates Us All’ (Slayer) and ‘God Is Dead’ (Black Sabbath), experienced ‘The God Machine’ (Blind Guardian), and now discover ‘The God Particle’ courtesy of American metallers Attacker – the bands new album exploding into life with the fast and furious ‘Knights Of Terror’. The pace is incredible, the band planting their feet firmly on the old school heavy metal monitor, heads banging everywhere as ‘Knights Of Terror’ roars on to a conclusion. And let’s be honest, I can’t be the only one to hear a little thrash metal influence in there too – Attacker marching on with the equally heavy and thrashy ‘Curse Of Creation’, the band bringing a hint of thrash metal legends Megadeth to the fore!
The opening brace has been a barnstorming double, making an emphatic impact around the world with every listener sitting up to take notice of a band firing on all cylinders – cylinders which continue to fire at full capacity as ‘Stigmatized’ enters the fray and races off at a hundred fucking miles an hour! And an already sky-high head bang ability has just risen even higher, the worldwide mosh pits going fucking mental for this one, the New Jersey five-piece pulling out all the stops and definitely, not pulling any punches! If you’re looking for a metal album to head bang furiously to, you’ll not go too far wrong with ‘The God Particle’ – every song up to this point head bang-able to the max! And as the album storms on with ‘River Of Souls’, I doubt the head bang ability is ever gonna go away – the sound of traditional heavy metal taking front and centre as the band drops a gear. ‘River Of Souls’ may be the slowest song heard so far, but it’s by no means a Sunday stroll in the park – the intensity and trashiness just as imposing as the previous three! And with a title that would be a fucking great description of where I live, ‘Kingdom Of Iron’ is a thundering rampage of all-out muscular metal – ya know, the muscular style of metal that separates American heavy metal from British.
Every song on ‘The God Particle’ clocks in at around four or so minutes in length, paving the way for a fast-moving and unrelenting heavy metal assault – an assault that’s far from over, Attacker maintaining an unbroken intensity level with the ferocious ‘World In Flames’. The band are at their most aggressive here too, delivering fierce foot on the monitor metal to test the head bang ability of every metalhead on the planet! Not to mention how far neck muscles can stretch too – Attacker testing the limits of the deep cervical flexor muscles! As will ‘The Mighty Have Fallen’ – chiming in as the fastest, most head bang-able friendly song on offer. The band are at full throttle here, roaring down the freeway at twice the legal limit, ignoring every warning sign, and the local traffic cops! Attacker are very much in their element right now, the title song ‘The God Particle’ bringing the album to a close in exactly the same way it began – explosive fast paced foot on the monitor heavy metal with phenomenal intensity. What an album! And what a band!
Overall, fast and furious thrashy, heavy metal with an insanely high infectious level and a head bang ability second to none.
TRACKLIST
Knights Of Terror
Curse Of Creation
Stigmatized
River Of Souls
Kingdom Of Iron
World In Flames
The Mighty Have Fallen
The God Particle
Attacker: Facebook
Release Year: 2024
Label: Massacre Records
Category: Album
Country: UK
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
