Ravager hail from Germany and play old-school thrash metal. The band have previously released three albums and an EP. “From Us With Hate” doesn’t have the best production, and when I put the album on I have to crank the volume by roughly twenty per cent to match the records I played beforehand. Once you get used to the slightly woolly sound and turn it up, it doesn’t actually sound that bad. At least it sounds organic, which is a plus these days. The band also have a decent handful of solid songs.
What bores me a little about Ravager, though, is how typical and by-the-numbers it all feels—the kind of thrash some of us have been listening to for over forty years. It’s perfectly fine to swear by old-school thrash, but it doesn’t do much for me when you don’t manage to stamp your own personality on the music. It just makes me want to put on the records that came out over forty years ago—for example Exodus’ “Bonded by Blood”, which turns forty this year. Speaking of “Bonded by Blood”, that track is covered here and closes the album—a cool version that sticks very close to the original. And that, really, is why I don’t find “From Us With Hate” all that exciting, even if it’s a good album.
Released September 19th, 2025 on Iron Shield Records.
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