Hailing from Syracuse, New York, FREYA was formed in 2001 by three members of EARTH CRISIS. Over the past twenty plus years they have blazed their way through the hardcore and metal scenes, having been featured on such shows as MTV's Roam Raiders, Road Rules and Headbangers Ball. With the release of their seventh full-length album Fight as One" on June 23, 2023 and lead vocalist Karl Buechner added this about the outcome "Everyone in the band unified and composed material together, Tom and Ethan poured everything they had into making Fight as One a truly powerful offering. Returning to their roots with a darkened, dose of thrash metal with songs that are tell tales of apocalypse demise of humanity and concise musical soundscapes that tell personal stories using imagery from the Norse Myths, and for those unfamiliar with that, which include myself, let me explain the Norse Myths: "a leader of the Vanir Gods, Freya was recognized as the archetypal volva, a practitioner of Seidr whose art and ritual could see events before they happened", clear as mud, right? All right enough learning for today, let's break down this convoluted album.

Eardrums, be prepared, we are about to invade your space with hard pounding riffs and a deep, muscular beat on the opening track "Nothingness or God" that eventually gives way to the raspy, rap-ish vocals, giving us a clear view of what to expect from this album moving forward. I'm not gonna over react just yet, the guitar licks do provide a nice metal, down and dirty attitude. On to the second track "Sense of Doom" and the first guest vocalist Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED). Putting my distain for pure rap metal aside, and this song is just that, I can at least give my props to a hard rocking and boisterous riff by the twin guitar attack of Erick Edwards and Thom Turner, delivering an evil overtone. Ok title track "Fight As One" please do not let me down, Freddy Cricean (MADBALL) provides the vocal madness on this one and leans towards death/thrash metal with beefy, throaty no-bullshit conviction backed by a constant blazing barrage of galvanized riffs and melody. This is a true headbanger. On to the third, and final guest vocalist featuring Scott Vogel (TERROR) unleashed on "1000 Yard Stare", is pretty straight forward in-your-face thrash/speed metal clocking in at just under two minutes of pure apocalyptic riffs and terrifying lyrics: They raised the madness of hell to the surface of Earth, crushed by circumstances dead at birth, now you dare to wonder why there's hate in our eyes, taught us to hate and fear each other. And we're back to rap metal on "Never Say My Name", where crunchy, furious riffs and licks prevail over the brazen and rapid backbeat setting the tempo. Another quick, in and out song that states it case and disappears without even so much as a goodbye. My eardrums are thanking me as we finish off this buzzsaw listen with "Odin" with a promising start of meaty riffs and tempo before the thrash deafening vocals take over and evolve this song into the onslaught of anger and torment, my throat begins to hurt just  listening to the shrieking wails coming from my speakers.

With seven albums in their catalog, FREYA has definitely found a following, I just won't be in that line. Eleven songs that deliver off the wall madness of thrash, speed and rap metal, with unadulterated crushing and thunderous riffs and smashmouth delivery all while lyrically painting a destructive and catastrophic storyline. Most fans of this genre will eat up "Fight as One" and probably tell me to "fuck off douche bag, you didn't give it a chance", but yes I did, and yes I tried, there were some licks that I could rally sink my teeth into, but I need vocals that are understandable and hey, how about a guitar solo tossed in once in a while.