Wehrmacht - Shark Attack (1987)

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Wehrmacht - Shark Attack (1987)

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A question popular among followers of thrash metal is undeniably this, “Which is considered the fastest thrash metal album of all time?” There would be a high percentage of answers supporting Reign In Blood, Darkness Descends, Pleasure To Kill or even Eternal Nightmare. Now here’s a startling reality. Wehrmacht’s debut album makes those albums sound as if they were meant to be listed under progressive metal. The sheer ferocity of these guys is enough to convince you why they were considered the fastest heavy metal band in the underground. And if that wasn’t enough, here’s another interesting fact. Les Evans of speedcore veterans Cryptic Slaughter described Wehrmacht once as "the only band that I ever saw blow Slayer offstage." As opposed to people titling them as crossover thrash, I would claim that these lunatics were musically pure thrash and only some of their lyrical themes offered hints of crossover much akin to Suicidal Tendencies or D.R.I.

So what is it that makes this record worthy of being called an underground classic? Right from production to musicianship, the concoction of several different ideas results into one colossal and inevitably unique style of their own. Their love for Gore flicks, lucky lager beer and hardcore punk provided them enough cannon fodder for their musical content. Many of you would probably wonder that there might just be a natural leaning towards sloppy playing especially considering my description of their astoundingly fast nature earlier. But the major surprise here is that all the musicians are extremely tight and precise with no single riff, solo or beat falling out of place. The bass lines carried out by Shann Mortimer are crystal clear and heavy as hell.

Okay, but what about the vocals? The man behind the microphone, Tito Matos is one of the most versatile thrash singers I have ever heard till date. His clarity of words and ability to keep up with the rest of the band with his lightning fast singing is simply commendable. The drummer on the other hand, Brian Lehfeldt, who also played on Cryptic Slaughter’s “Speak Your Peace” album, must have been one of the fastest skin pounders of his time. His outrageously fast paced drumming, virtually a combination of both D-beat and blastbeat was a key factor in the band’s sound. I was also told that these guys’ average age was 17 or 18 when this album was recorded. Wow!!! Death Angel and Acrophet stand nowhere.

The songs in here are all ridiculously speedy pieces of thrash metal with practically little or no remorse for the listener. The title track with that brilliant rendition of the famously eerie Jaws theme kicks off the onslaught with a tearing main riff that shreds away with speed and precision. The one track that stands out is “S.O.P” where they truly challenge the speed of sound. In the final moments of the song when Tito yells “On your Marks, Get Set, Go!!!!!!!”, the band hits top gear and cranks out stuff even grindcore bands would find hard to pull off.

Two tracks namely “Barrage of Skankers” and the cult classic “United Shoebrothers” have incredible thrash breaks and lyrics with the former justifiably dealing with the slaughtering of poseurs and wankers. The other track that has one of the coolest opening riffs ever is “Napalm Shower”. The instrumental piece “Fretboard Gymnastics” showcases the technical proficiencies of both the guitarists Sharko and Duffy, and they nail some of the craziest solos and clean sections with absolute ease. The only throwaway track around is the amusing “Puke” which was intentional and not meant to be taken seriously.

Teutonic, bay area and a few east coast thrash metal bands have been instrumental in forging the whole genre altogether but taking the intensity a couple of notches higher was undoubtedly achieved by bands like Cryptic Slaughter, Soothsayer and finally Wehrmacht. For a year that was 1987, “Shark Attack” was way ahead of its time and has been highly regarded as the release that influenced many a band in the grindcore and black metal genres. To testify this statement of mine, U.K grindcore pioneers Napalm Death have covered Wehrmacht on one of their studio compilations, thus proving the exemplary effect this band had in the years to come.

Yet the irony still stands out as to why only the most devoted of thrash metal freaks know about this band. Now that they’ve reunited, they’ll hopefully make up for all the fame that they lost out on in the late 80s and 90s, when the alternative scene took over. As for some of you guys, quit wasting your time listening to the senseless offshoots of grindcore and shitty black metal and get a hold of this classic instead. With an ultra cool band logo and one of the best album covers, showing a dude surfing on two killer sharks, get ready for a sans warning SHARK ATTACK!!!!!

by cravingforvenom, metal-archives

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Wehrmacht - Shark Attack (1987)

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Wehrmacht - Shark Attack (1987)

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