V

Colorado-based thrashers HAVOK are back! After a whirlwind yet rewarding cycle for 2017's Conformicide effort, the high-octane outfit have emerged from the studio victorious with their new album, V. A sucker punch to the gut and a heady challenge to the status quo, HAVOK's 11-song rager undeniably sets fresh standards. V extols the virtues of HAVOK's past and yet celebrates with staccato brilliance where the group are at today. Indeed, the quartet are refining their craft, writing better, catchier songs, and pushing the sonic envelope without sacrificing the aggression, the attitude, the smarts, and the intensity that commanded Time Is Up (2011) and Unnatural Selection (2013) to circle-pit infamy. The same processes that informed the transformations of Slayer (South of Heaven), Testament (Practice What You Preach), and Death Angel's (Act III) is heavily at work on V. From opener "Post-Truth Era" to closer "Don't Do It," HAVOK have in their midst a bonafide, modern-era thrash classic."The band's sound has gradually gotten more diverse and layered," says HAVOK vocalist/guitarist David Sanchez. "These days, the two guitars are not playing the same parts together as much. We utilize our instruments more like a symphony today, intertwining different lines to create a multi-layered sonic fabric." "Musical growth goes hand-in-hand with our physical and mental growth," guitarist Reece Scruggs adds. "We're all in our 30s, so V will naturally sound different from Burn or Time Is Up."Written over much of 2019, V benefits from more time, intensified collaboration, and continued refinement. Not only did Sanchez, Scruggs, drummer Pete Webber, and the group's new bassist Brandon Bruce compose HAVOK's most straightforward songs ("Fear Campaign" and "Merchants of Death") to date, they also wrote some of the group's most intricate songs ("Betrayed by Technology" and "Interface with the Infinite") in the band's storied oeuvre.