Mount Slatra are a four-piece thrash metal band from Worcestershire – a middle land that inspired Middle-earth. Here be trolls, orcs, and a disappointingly high density of Tory voters in the northern band skirting the boundary with Birmingham. Mount Slatra were featured in the BBC Sounds documentary series Forging Metal alongside British heavy metal legends Tony Iommi and Rob Halford. This was the greatest combination of metal since copper and tin were combined to make bronze. Sorry, had to steel a metal pun.
Fit for the Dead is Mount Slatra’s debut album, and thankfully it’s fit for the alive as well. The album cover looks like the poster for a horror film from the 80s, which – as we will soon find out – is extremely appropriate. ‘Dharmata’ is Sanskrit for ‘actual reality’, and it’s also the 31-second opening track on the album. It’s likely to conjure images of abandoned American suburbs, zombie takeovers, and alien spaceship landings. A promisingly terrifying start.
5×5 is the grid used by prisoners to tap out messages letter-by-letter – a sort of more tedious Morse code. On ‘5 x 5’, front man Ryan Darling snarls, “In the coldness of killing / Goes the author of hate / Convincing the willing / Dictating their fate,” thus making Jeffrey Dahmer seem as threatening as Mary Poppins. It is exemplary thrash, with the urgency of Slayer and the belt-out-the-chorusing of Metallica.
Title track ‘Fit for the Dead’ dips into the ominous realm of ‘Enter Sandman’ a couple of times, and its tempo shifts and riffery will give you whiplash. It is the album’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. ‘Age of Industrial’ includes lyrics such as “material gains on the factory belt / fuelling the fires of doom” – this is poetry, and I shall not use violence to support my view. After listening to the track, you will feel like you have done twelve rounds with a dragon.
A cryptocracy is a form of government where the real leaders are hidden or unknown. The late Bill Hicks did a sketch in which he spoke about a group of industrialists running the show. It is still relevant, and therefore so is ‘Cryptocracy’ by Mount Slatra, which rages against warmongering and propaganda in a way that Ed Sheeran and gated community dwellers in North Worcestershire would thoroughly disapprove of.
‘Rainfall’ is the perfect title for a short, subdued, drum-less piece that should and probably will soundtrack a scene involving a wounded warrior planning his vengeance while simultaneously struggling to overcome the indifference of the world. ‘Radio Mercy’ begins with church bells, which are very much not the Christmas kind. Hannah Law takes on vocal duties, and adds an Evanescence-sized dimension to the band that will hopefully reappear on future albums. ‘Siege Eternal’ brings the album to a paradoxical close – its thrilling thrash does not batter your ears forever, but you might wish it would.
Mount Slatra take Slayer, Metallica, and Rage Against The Machine, and mix them in a cauldron containing big bucket loads of talent. This is alloyed metal. This is very good indeed.
Live dates
The Metal Monocle – Leicester – 24th September
Scruffy Murphy’s – Birmingham –7th November
Arches Venue – Coventry – 19th December
Fit for the Dead is out now on Witches Brew Records
Mount Slatra: Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
Review by Neil Laurenson
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