NEMESIS is a band from Charlotte, North Carolina specializing in old school back-to-basics Thrash/Speed Metal. This kind of early Thrash is only steps away from Speed Metal, so it is almost the same genre when played without as much of the Punk influence that really distinguishes Thrash. "Atrocity Unleashed" is textbook primordial Thrash metal, leaning all the way back into Speed metal for a sizeable portion of the album; with a heavy focus on pure shredding and playing as fast as possible. The vocals are rhythmic almost-spoken lyrics with some creeches thrown in for flavor.

 As usual, the uncreatively titled track, "Intro" is an instrumental piece that purely builds atmosphere. Moving past this, "Nemesis" (the track) with its repetitive drumming setting a fast tempo and howling, screeching vocals is predictable yet comfortable for fans of Thrash. "Zombie Assault" and "Psycho Surgeon" are more of the same. "Blades of Death" is one of the more Thrash-like tracks for me, reminding me of early METALLICA with their riffs, occassional muted segments, and punctuating drum beats.

For a lot of the album, repeated refrains (usually the title of the track) are commonplace. The repetition is a Speed Metal trope. "Toxic Plague" is really where this trait fades out of usage on this LP. "Warlocke's Curse" has some nice shredding that crumbles down into Gloom/Doom with some disturbing, otherworldy playing. Although occassionally deviating from the motifs and chords established early on in the album, it all blurs together in how uniform it all is. The title track at least sets itself apartwith a long instrumental eith shredding guitar wails and some classic riffs from the golden age of Thrash. I admit my interest was waning a bit until this song gave me back a little bit of life.

With a firm foothold in the 80s, both in Thrash Metal sound and B-horror themes, "Atrocity Unleashed" is like a time capsule or a love letter to a bygone decade. Even the album cover looks like a tribute to classic zombie flicks and the Evil Dead franchise. The final track "Terminator" begins with a sound clip from the movie of the same name...and I liked it. That is ironic considering a review I did recently and my thoughts on this same concept on that LP, but in this instance it could have been that this was a one-off rather than a contInuing theme. While not the best album I have heard this year, I can't say any other band has managed to capture the energy of early Thrash quite like NEMESIS and I will be keeping one eye open for their next album.