Last seen around these parts in 2017 (though they did release an album in 2020 and an EP in 2023), Spain’s Holycide remain resolutely unchanged in their outlook and sound. That’s probably no bad thing for a band which has a sound rooted completely in 1988, but does come as a warning if it’s progression and development you look for in a band?

Me? well, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it is the phrase that springs to mind here, and the band, despite some lineup tweaks since our last brush with them, have certainly taken that mantra to heart on Towards Idiocracy.

Consequently, if crossover-tinged true thrash ain’t your bag then you should probably move away from this page now. If it is, then you’re in for a neck-testing forty minutes or so in the company of gravel throated vocalist Dave Rotten and his band of not-so-merry men. Lie Is The New Truth probably shows the band off in it’s best light, being a raging piece of primal, all guns blazing heavy metal thunder. Rotten leads from the front, stripping paint at twenty yards with his vicious vocalisations, but Holycide aren’t really an outfit where individuals stand out. This is a triumph of the band as a tight, compact unit, and as such each track is essentially the same, give or take the odd lead break or gang vocalled chorus… Highlights are for posers!

The band take a risk by throwing in an Atrophy cover – Chemical Dependency – but the good news is nobody loses as the band pay tribute to the original faithfully whilst undoubtedly making it their own to the point that it fits seamlessly into the running order without disrupting the flow of the record. Top work!

Good, solid stuff all round then, and certainly a nice addition to the band’s burgeoning back catalogue. THRASH TIL DEATH!!



Towards Idiocracy releases on June 6th.