SILIUS - Hell Awakening Review

SILIUS - Hell Awakening

Massacre Records

Bandcamp

SILIUS is a new band that comes from Austria. The band started in autumn 2013 by the musicians Ralph (drums), Haui (lead guitar), Mex (rhythm guitar), Martin (bass) and Matthias (vocals) who wanted from the beginning to play thrash metal inspired by their heroes as metal fans. In 2015 the band released the demo “DEMOn” which made them known in the metal scene of their country. Actually their talent and their dynamic were very early recognized and the proof of that is that they won the Metalchamp (an Austrian contest for metal bands) in 2015, and also won the Wacken Metal Battle. All these made Massacre Records notice them and offer them the opportunity to release their debut studio album which I am about to present to you.

SILIUS might come from Europe, but in their first album they sound like a band that comes from the bay area thrash metal scene and in general they are inspired by the U.S. thrash metal scene. The way they structure their songs and the riffs they create prove that amongst the metal heroes of SILIUS are bands like METALLICA, TESTAMENT and EXODUS. They have also many groove moments that obviously have references to PANTERA and the band doesn’t hesitate to throw in the mix some traditional metal elements as well that bring to mind BLACK SABBATH and the N.W.O.B.H.M. scene.

The band, though, is not a replica and doesn’t simply recreate songs of the above mentioned groups. SILIUS have their own identity and above all the compositions included in this release sound fresh and catchy. It is actually an album you can listen to again and again easily and it won’t tire you at all. After all the great bands in their debut releases didn’t hide their influences either and these albums now are considered classic. The fact is that SILIUS feel and love what they play and they do it with passion and energy.

“Hell Awakening” is a title that fits very well to the debut release of SILIUS, since they give us a good and impressive debut release which makes you think the potential they have to release good songs in the future, especially if they continue working on their talent and building their personal sound. Thrash metal maniacs will find them interesting to say the least…

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis