Band:	Hirax
Album:	The New Age Of Terror
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	2004

01. Killswitch
02. Hostile Territory
03. The New Age Of Terror
04. Swords Of Steel
05. Into The Ruins
06. Massacre Of The Innocent
07. Hell On Earth
08. Suffer
09. El Dia De Los Muertos
10. El Diablo Negro (Remake)
11. Unleash The Dogs Of War

We are lucky this year. Exodus is back, Death Angel came back as well and now this is the turn of Hirax, with their great frontman and leader Katon W De Pena, the two excellent lead guitarist, Dave Waston and Glen Rogers, the drummer Jorge Lacobellis and the bassist Angelo Espino. Hirax is like a legend, one of this first bands of the 80's, which did with Exodus and Metallica for example, that Thrash metal is now that kind of music that everybody knows.
After 9 years of blackout, the band did its come back on a split cd with their mates of Spazz in 1997 and now 7 years later due to numerous fan mails and emails, they are back with their new album, "The New Age Of Terror".


And again, like for Exodus and Death Angel, this is not a come back for nothing. This new album is really well done and it's a great feeling to see that a lot of bands of the 80's do their come back actually with always this same true spirit, always this love of the real Metal music.
"The New Age of Terror" is really good, with a lot of excellent thrashy guitars riffs and excellent guitars solo, a lot of diabolic fast tempo, and of course the very special voice of Katon De Pena which is excellent. The result of all this combination is a really good old Thrash, this kind of music that all the old nostalgic of the 80's will love, but that all the fans of good music in general will like too. Plus, the lyrics in the pure tradition of all the great bands which play Thrash Metal are very committed and very good.
The good point with Hirax come certainly from the fact that Katon is a great leader, a great frontman and he gives a lot to the music of the band. He is charismatic no doubt and believe me that his vocals give a lot of power to the music of the band. Without Katon no doubt that Hirax couldn't be a "band".
The cd is really good, that's right, but however there are 2 problems for me?
The first one comes from the production, which is really honest but the sound is a bit "old". This is not a real problem don't worry because the sound is good but nowadays they could have had better production. Anyway, I'm sure that their next albums will be better and better for that point in the future.
The 2nd point which is more important to me is the length of the album? Only 37:14 min? And on 11 tracks, 4 track have less than 2:15 min of length? It's short? Then ok I can understand that by the fact that it's the return of the band, but it's sad because when we listen to the album we just want more?


"The New Age of Terror" is a real great return for Hirax. This album is short [too bad] and that's the principal reason why I don't give a better rating, but all the tracks are really excellent, and if you like Thrash metal and good Metal in general, this new album is for you. I have no doubt that, like for Exodus and Death Angel, we will hear a lot about Hirax now.