Spare
Darkness Rising
6.1
An Irish thrash band…if ever there was a better reason to have a drink. Spare plays fun and energetic metal with a competent level of musicianship. They are the kind of local band that has the raw ingredients to play with the big boys if they could write a great album. This five-song EP is a promising start, as some of the songs and passages are simply good metal, not just “good for a demo”.
“Darkness Rising” is the title track and first song, and it shows Spare’s old-school thrash influences right away. It is pretty obvious that they grew up listening to Bay Area thrash and Slayer, as they merge groove riffs built on open-string chugging with hyperspeed shredding and lengthy, note-filled solos. A similar template is followed on the next track, which starts off with a dark Slayer-esque passage which transitions into speed and then a moshable mid-paced verse.
They may run into some copyright infringement issues on “Domination Alone”, with a start that sounds so, so much like Metallica’s “Eye of the Beholder”. Fortunately, they sack up and thrash hard the rest of the way through, breaking for another speedy, chaotic solo. The final two songs follow pretty much the same progression, with “Brutal Fate” being the better of the two due to an interesting slowdown in the late-middle, with slight shades of Iron Maiden-like guitarwork.
Spare is a young band with potential, but also with a few points of concern. They obviously wear their influences on their sleeves, which may or may not be a good thing. Their vocalist is quite raw, although I suspect that better production may better mesh his voice into the soundscape. Lastly, their songs have definite moments of quality thrash, but they could be more memorable. But all in all, this is a strong demo of a band that must have a powerful live presence.
