The traditional cold British weather has persisted into April. That failed to be a concern for those in attendance for another sweaty night at Sheffield’s Corporation venue, as a contender for Thrash tour of the year rolled through town. On this night, fans were treated by the iconic Vio-lence, flanked by New Orleans’s Exhorder and Paraguay’s Kuazar as the opener.
Kuazar
Hailing from a landlocked spot in South America, Kuazar treat this murky nightclub like it were an arena. Comprised of José & Eduardo Gonzalez on guitar and drums, and Marcelo Saracho on bass, Kuazar are the first band ever out of Paraguay to tour the UK and Europe. They open with the title track of their most recent album, ‘Hybrid Power’ as well as ‘Obscure and Violent’, which play in the opposite order on the album, as well as ‘The Truth of Reality’ off of Wrath of God. José is a natural frontman, encouraging fans to come forward as well as doing some major sales work for the bar staff to keep the crowd supplied with beer. Also from Hybrid Power is ‘Silence’, which diverges in sound to more of a fusion of Burn My Eyes era Machine Head and Gojira. A strong and excellent return to your more traditional thrash sound is ‘Machete Che Pope’, which has been lauded in their homeland as an award-winning track. Jose explains the purpose behind the chanting in the song, with some of the crowd chanting the title lyric in return. Kuazar, in some ways, have overachieved with this tour, as the opener has had rave responses on multiple dates. Both ‘Machete Che Pope’ and the final track ‘Kuriju’ are performed in Paraguay’s official language, Guaraní. Even for those who didn’t understand the lyrics, the emotional weight and urgency in the performance were clear. As they wrap up the set, Eduardo takes a commemorative video from behind the drum kit whilst Jose stands draped in the flag of Paraguay, as they have essentially made history.
Exhorder
Conspicuous by the fact that this tour somehow wasn’t a co-headliner, Exhorder are next to the stage. The Exhorder name has celebrated 40 years in the scene as of this year, and with it came an incredible, well-crafted and nonchalantly performed set. Opening track ‘My Time’ is taken at a blistering pace, and it is clear that their name is the reason a few tickets were shifted for this show. The New Orleans legends have a similar catalogue to Vio-lence in terms of depth, and pull from their most recent work 2024 album Defectum Omnium, with ‘Forever and Beyond Dispair’. Kyle Thomas jokes that the band plays a game of jump rope whilst on stage called “Old Song New Song”. He then throws a middle finger to the sky as he introduces ‘Unforgiven’ from their album The Law to some excitement from the Sheffield crowd. The clear and obvious favourite is the Slaughter in the Vatican record, where the crowds enthusiasm is even noted by Thomas just before they play ‘Death in Vain’, closely followed by one of their most popular tracks from Defectum Omnium, ‘Year of The Goat, which is apparently a “Get up and grab em by the fuckin nuts song” according to Kyle.
Thomas does take a moment to note that of Exhorder’s latest record, the remaining songs left to play from it are largely quite depressing. The band goes on to explain that the pandemic is the main cause of this, and that if anyone in the crowd experienced pain or loss in those years, they relate to them. They also take a moment to applaud those who experienced hardships and came out of the other side before playing ‘The Tale of Unsound Minds’, a track that channelled that grief and reflection into something cathartic. From here, the remainder of the set is entirely based on Slaughter in The Vatican, so they take a moment to introduce the band on stage, that being Jason Viebrooks on bass, Sasha Horn on drums, and a very well-received appearance of Pat O’Brien on lead guitar. The band wrap up with a vicious trio of songs to celebrate 35 years of this record, that being ‘Legions of Death’, the namesake track ‘Exhorder’ and finally ‘Desecrator’. Kyle actively encourages the band to boo when announcing they have reach the end of the set, but turns that comedy into gratitude given Exhorder has come all the way form playing scarce punk rock shows in New Orleans to being able to tour around the world. This set truly showed how Exhorder are one of the unsung pillars of the groove/thrash genre
Vio-lence
Even in their position as headliner, the approach to the set from Vio-lence is very no-nonsense, not even dimming the lights to signal their walk on. Given that all advertisement for the tour was centred on Oppressing The Masses, it should surprise no one that almost the entire first half of the set is from that album. The Bay Area Legends began with ‘Liquid Courage’ and ‘Subterfuge’ before frontman Sean Killian quickly reminded the crowd that “Of all things, what I want is your money, if you leave this bar with money and not beer, you did tonight wrong”. For those unaware, this is his introduction to ‘I Profit’, which is followed by the pummeling ‘Engulfed by Flames’. As mentioned, Vio-lence are so no-nonsense in their approach to this set, and yet so energetic. Killian is a live presence that equals that of legends in the thrash scene. He is brilliantly intense and interactive during songs, but brings a pause between songs that strings the set together really well. He mentions that very little of their spiel is scripted, commenting that “I don’t know what I’m gonna say, I just come up to talk shit”, whilst egging his bandmates into the next track, and personal favourite ‘Officer Nice’.
Killian goes to introduce the band just prior to their final back-to-back offering from Oppressing The Masses for the time being in ‘Mentally Afflicted’. Those on stage on this tour are Jeff Salgado on bass, Nick Souza, dubbed “the old soul” behind the drum kit, Ira Black on lead guitar duties, and Claudeous Creamer of Possessed, who took the call just eight days before the tour began to step in on rhythm guitar. The set has a bit of respite from the Masses album, instead treating the crowd to three back-to-back tracks from Eternal Nightmare, which is met with equal enthusiasm to the spotlight album of the tour. From 1988, the band burst out ‘Phobophobia’, ‘Serial Killer’, and the title track ‘Eternal Nightmare’. Just before ‘Serial Killer’, Killian prompts guitarist Ira Black to shred a little to introduce this number. Said warbling on the guitar goes long enough for Sean to interject and quite hilariously say “Just start the fucking song”. The middle of the set is then rounded out by playing another title track, dropping both ‘Eternal Nightmare’ and ‘Oppressing the Masses’ one after the other.
The final stretch of the set gets off to a bit of a misfire. Just before ‘Kill on Command’ Sean forgets what song is next, asking “What the hell are we playing?”, which seemed half to the crowd, half to the band. This is apparently a nightly occurrence, which brings a laugh from Salgado and Creamer, and a finger in return from Killian, who jokes that he treats all the crew with the utmost respect, said with a wink. The final three tracks of the night are one a piece from each of Vio-lence’s most successful releases. Starting with ‘Calling the Coroner’, Sean explains that this record is home to the first lyrics he ever wrote. It’s only fitting to play one of the band’s newest tracks from Let The World Burn in response, which was the very well-received ‘Upon Their Cross’. Finally, Vio-lence plays Sheffield out with what Sean explains has always been the curtain dropping track, ‘World in a World’, which ends with him standing balanced between the stage and the front row barrier and the room in applause.
Vio-lence as a concept spent many years in the wilderness in terms of its status. Those are years that will have been woefully missed by many. Having witnessed their first-ever UK show at Bloodstock 2022, and now being in attendance for their first tour of the UK, I can say with confidence that Vio-lence put on a thrash metal show as well as the best in the scene, and the scene is better now having them in it again.
