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Leave No Soul E.P.

    
       
       
       
     
             
Hatchet are a thrash metal band from the USA formed in 2006 releasing to date four albums - 'Awaiting Evil' (2008), 'Dawn Of The End' (2013), 'Fear Beyond Lunacy' (2015) and 'Dying To Exist' (2018), and two E.P.'s - 'Hatchet' (2007) and 'Leave No Soul'...    
             
...emerging in 2024 featuring five songs which include two sensational covers - and I mean jaw dropping sensational! More on those later - for Hatchet are a thrash metal tornado, delivering high speed, highly head bang-able ferocity laden thrash! Hailing from San Francisco and the iconic Bay Area, the band state the likes of Exodus, Testament and Metallica as their major influences, and it shows - Hatchet taking the sound of these three bands and doubling, no tripling, even quadrupling the aggression, speed and brutality! The American four-piece - Julz Ramos (guitars, vocals), Devin Reiche (bass), Ben Smith (drums), and Clayton Cagle (guitars), rip through every song on offer at a blistering pace to send every head banger around the world fucking crazy! The speed of the band is nothing like I've heard before, bands such as Harlott and Terrifier coming a distant second to Hatchet's faster than the speed of light thrash - the bands new E.P. roaring into life with the title song 'Leave No Soul'.    
             
And with breathtaking urgency too, Hatchet setting new land speed records right from the off - 'Leave No Soul' (the song) a bone snapping skull crushing torrent of ferocity guaranteed to bang heads harder than ever before! And for me that'd mean at any time across the last forty plus years - the band quite possibly banging my head harder than ever before! The phenomenal speed is out of this world, the E.P. not breaking its stride as it storms on with 'Concealing Decay' - the levels of aggression and menace shooing right through the fucking roof! Hatchet have got to be an otherworldly band surely, 'cause this amount of ferocity cannot exist in just one earthly band! Can it? Well it must do, for here it is in all it's magnificence, the American thrashers setting the world on fire with a red hot brace that's defying the laws of speed - the E.P. not slowing down one bit as 'Withering Minds' enters the fray with more hustle and bustle than either of the two previous songs! Yet still retaining the E.P.'s all conquering aggression and menace - Hatchet roaring into pole position for the Album Of The Year title. And yes I realise it's an E.P. and not a full length album - but surely that doesn't' matter one little bit, 'cause it's all about how fucking good the music is! And right here right now the music's fucking superb!    
             
Especially the two cover songs the band have chosen to cover - both songs absolute classics from two of the biggest and most influential bands of all time! And right from the start of their careers too - an incredible thirty five and forty years ago! Fuck me I was only nineteen and fourteen back then, Hatchet covering 'Human Insecticide' by one of Canada's premier thrash metal bands Annihilator (the song taken from the bands 1989 debut album 'Alice In Hell'). And it's always a worry when a band covers one of your all time favourite songs by one of your all time favourite bands just in case they "ruin it" - but in the case of Hatchet's cover version, there's no worries at all! I reckon the band may have even bettered the original - certainly speeding it up and adding a shit tonne more aggression and ferocity!    
             
And for the second cover song, the American thrashers move into the realm of heavy metal to cover 'Hellion' by W.A.S.P. (the song taken from the bands 1984 self titled debut album) - and again I needn't have worried, for while Hatchet do thrash it up a bit, the band keep to the pace of the original perfectly! And the howling vocals here add a massive sinister edge to 'Hellion', Hatchet rounding off the E.P. in dazzling style. If you've never heard the band before, you're in for one hell of a treat as the five songs on offer are staggering - 'Leave No Soul' E.P. getting my vote as Album Of The Year! Or "E.P. Of The Year", or simply as "release of the year".    
             
Overall, a high velocity high speed thrash metal onslaught featuring incredible head bang ability across five ferociously aggressive songs.    
             
             
Review by Iron Mathew Collins    
             
Reviewed for Metal Gods TV    
             
             
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