[Review] PESSIMIST - 'Holdout' [GERMAN THRASH!]

 Friday night has arrived after a long and boring week at work. So here I am sat in my man-cave with my headphones on listening to the new Pessimist album whilst fooling around on Need for Speed when suddenly it happens! Around me the world ceases to exist. There is only me, a super charged Audi drifting like a pro and the thundering thrash riffs bludgeoning my ears, and as I developed a serious case of tunnel vision all of this synced into one harmonious experience of sound and speed. In that moment I felt truly glorious as the music washed over me in a way that I have not felt for quite a while. Still, enough fanciful musings. It's time to take a deeper look at 'Holdout', the third full length offering from German thrashers Pessimist!


Fast paced and hard hitting from the get go, 'Holdout' opens with an all out thrash attack in the form of 'Landsknecht'. Yet amid the powerful riff-age and frantic drum beats Pessimist display early on their melodic intentions with some nicely placed guitar solos and slower, more evocative passages. Despite this though the opening track is an out right monster and a superb prelude of the mayhem to come. I'm not a massive thrash metal fan if the truth be told due to finding a lot of thrash bands to be too cliched, ordinary sounding and formulaic. I find none of those traits present in the work of Pessimist. Living up to its moniker 'Roaring Thunder' is a shortened dose of savagery that combines catchy riffs, pummelling bass lines and and once more a penchant for gripping, attention grabbing song writing that leaves the listener begging for more.

Opening with a nice solo drumming display before a guitar display that blends between the rhythmic and the brutal, 'Kill & Become' is a flat out anthem of a track displaying some groovy guitar chops. A word on the vocal display here; Pessimist vocalist Michael "TZ" Schweitzer uses the harsh guttural and raw barbarism that has been a mainstay of old school thrash metal for the last few decades, and even though Pessimist are a band who, whilst paying homage to the old school classics, very much forge their own path, this vocal style really compliments the bands sound superbly. Speaking of tipping a nod to the past, 'Death Awaits' is just that; a harsh slab of 80's thrash played at high decibel and break neck speed with all of the musicianship and dexterity previously mentioned. Thrown in some crippling chugging riffs, meandering solos and crushing drumming and you have one hell of a tune on your hands.

It is about this point that many albums to start to lose focus and filler becomes the inevitable. Not here! If anything Pessimist crank things up further and glide effortlessly into a higher gear with the albums title track 'Holdout'. Whilst displaying the brutality with which the band can so easily dish out in droves, once more they also spread their creative and melodic wings with some particularly defined and enjoyable bass play surging to the surface to take centre stage. 'Mountain of Death' is straight to the point, a juggernaut of violence and venom but climaxes with a wonderfully ambient melody before transitioning perfectly into the slower, chugging 'The King of Slaughter' whose bass lines once more sing out more noticeably. Come the time when our world returns to normal and bands like Pessimist can crush it on stage once more, this song over any other is going to be the shows defining moment as hordes of loyal heathens angrily and passionately shout out with the band to the chorus.

We are approaching the last lap now as 'Agony' bludgeons and hammers at everything in it's path before making way for the albums lengthy sprint to the chequered flag. Entitled '7-28', a date with huge historic significance, (Austro-Hungarian empire declaring war on Serbia in 1914 thus starting the First World War, Operation Gomorrah where the RAF bombed Hamburg killing over 40'000 civilians in the Second World War, or the day in 1965 when President Johnson increased the troop deployment to Vietnam.) this is a stunning closing track. Every element of the band gets their moment to shine. Dripping with groove, bass and passion, '7-28' is a cataclysm, an outpouring of emotion, sweat, blood and talent. Every drop of creative and musical talent is shown here, from flowing solos, powerful vocal displays, consistent and punishing drums and sturdy, rumbling bass. Yet this track is more than musical perfection. It's about the atmosphere and mood is generates, and the way in which the deep rooted feelings it evokes cap off what has been a tremendous album. I think the biggest compliment I can give to pessimist for 'Holdout' is this; as previously mentioned thrash is not massive on my list of top genres/sub genres. Yet 'Holdout' is for me easily one of the albums of the year. I'm now off to listen to their previous albums... and to invade Poland. thanks for reading. [9 out of 10]

https://pessimist-thrash.bandcamp.com/