I like a play on words that come with this band name; AXETASY. They are a German Speed/Thrash Metal band from Stuttgart that started out in 2019, and after their 2021 demo “Slicing Dreams” considered themselves ready to release a full-length studio album. The result of their labours that is trying to devastate my hearing channels is called “Withering Tides”. And even though the Metal Archives site has put AXETASY as a Heavy Metal band, don’t let that site fool you. This is pure Speed and Thrash Metal in heart, soul and emotion. As well as in Speed, conviction and musical pleasure. You can hear that these guys enjoy what they are doing, it just oozes out all through the record.

After a very short intro (“The Void”) the band goes for broke and tries to break the speed limit where possible. “Withering Tides Of Space” sets the scene for the whole album. Songs that are not too short, that deliver on variety and intensity and all have a solid start, a muscular body and a proper ending. Not only that, but they also all have been penned just right, giving them the kind of attitude and quality you hope and expect to find in a good Speed/Thrash Metal album. When it comes to AXETASY I can’t just name those two musical styles separate, as they are interwoven in such a way in every song that it is almost impossible to not see them as a Siamese twin.

AXETASY consists of four very good musicians that make it able to classify the tunes on “Withering Tides” as either good or very good. And on top of that there is the voice of Johnny “Amon” Kröner. He has one thing going for him that will entice a lot of listeners to take extra notice; he regularly sounds like the younger version of Paul Baloff. Yes, really! And he does that in such a good way that all his lyrical lines and outbursts fit into the music effortlessly. I have to admit that with my love for anything EXODUS related it might have added another point to my rating, but I somehow resisted doing that. What it had s achieved though is that it has cemented the one I have put underneath this review. “Withering Tides” is an album full of sturdy and convincing Speed/ Thrash Metal, giving AXETASY just the right amount of attention.