*This is a part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured State*
This month’s State is North Carolina!
Hello, fellow metalheads! Welcome back to our weekly edition of the State Of The Art series. I know it is Monday and you’re probably all lagged up, reluctantly waking up from you slumber and contemplating the cesspool of existential crisis Monday brings. It’s annoying I know, everyone hates Mondays. Well, that’s when Metal Nexus comes in and plays its card, the SOTA card. To cheer up your dull day, we bring to you today one of the rising forces of American thrash metal, bellowing from the deepest gorges of hell, hailing from the capital city of Raleigh, we present to you SUPPRESSIVE FIRE. They bring with themselves a relentless wall of sonic barrage, coupled with speed and aggression of 80s teutonic German thrash and the modern technicality and brutality of the sub genre. Let’s get this straight, if you are looking for or are expecting that one melodic filler song per album kinda band, then I am sorry, in the words of the legendary Pantera, “Walk on home boy!”. This is as thrash as it gets, teutonic monstrosity and Bay Area aggression makes them the band that they are today!
Joseph Valhal, the band’s guitarist put up an classified ad and was almost on the brink of stalling the idea, that is when Brandon Smith revived the hope and joined him as a drummer as narrated by the frontman in an interview with Wonderbox Metal. The building foundation being now laid strong, all they needed was now a bassist and a vocalist. Aaron Schmidt soon fit the last missing puzzle and decided to do the double duty of a bassist and vocalist, thus helping in the birth of a new three piece band that would soon go on and create major ripples in the NC metal scene from 2011 onwards. Albeit, later the band would see themselves branch out into a four piece till date.
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This Friday the 13th, St. Louis thrash metal quartet, Black Fast are set to release their third full-length LP entitled ‘Spectre of Ruin’ via eOne Music. Just like a machete to the jugular, this record is track after track of eviscerating ferocity, and for the listener, never a moment of sanctuary is offered. It’s just pure, balls-out metal in the form of blistering, technical, death-infused thrash with nuanced layers of gothic, black metal coldness that find a way to ooze into the music at just the perfect times. Continue reading 
