Four albums in five years suggests these Michigan heavyweights have been pretty darn busy.
2010’s Push Pull Destroy established Battlecross and their own take on battle metal – or blue collar thrash, as they style it.
They blend classic Bay Area thrash with a touch of Carcass-esque melodic death metal, and Annihilator’s knack for sculpting melodic touches out of the razor-sharp riffing. There’s also a massive blast of modern groove metal. Not Your Slave is all jagged riffs, raw-throated vocals and epic guitar leads, while Spoiled goes from classic NWOBHM through to ferocious thrash via triumphant fists-in-the-air solos. Battlecross’s strength lies in their ability to take catchy classic metal and old-school thrash and mix it with a modern metallic harshness without it sound forced or unwieldy. Old-school metalheads may not approve, but for a modern take on classic metal, Rise To Power delivers.
