From ideas and projects great releases are born. It’s clear that the lack of professional compromise (with long tours, labels and more) can help a band to create music without constrains, so something good can come from it. And its precisely what is delivered by SMOKE AXD, and act with former members of names as CROWN OF THORNZ, SKARHEAD, MADBALL, HATEBREED and others, so too much can be expected. And what is delivered on “Vaya Con Dios” is the proof that such team must be take seriously. Behind the sonority of the album is Christopher “Zeuss” Harris, the same one known for his works with SOULFLY, SUFFOCATION, WITHERFALL, ICED EARTH, SIX FEET UNDER, RAVEN, QUEENSRŸCHE, OVERKILL and others.

It’s something brutal, powerful and ‘in-your-face’, with excellent instrumental tunes and all sounding understandable, but with a massive aggressiveness and weight. Their music: a riff-driven form of Groove Thrash Metal/Hardcore that’s brutal and oppressive, but massive and with an energetic impact is absurd. There are moments when things sound more into a 90s Thrash Metal-like (with excellent double bass parts and breakdowns inherited from Hardcore as heard on “The Codes We Chose”), sometimes with Groove Metal energy (as heard on “Vaya Con Dios”, where some parts remind SEPULTURA’s work on “Chaos A.D.” days), but always with personality and energy enough to rip ears to shreds!

“The Codes We Chose” opens the EP with a massive energy unleashed by intense riffing from the guitars (that allows influences of Hardcore to enter the mix), and “From Hate We Came” has a Groove/Thrash Metal outfit, with greasy guitars creating a perfect sheath for the vocals. As the title says, “Unstoppable” is the kind of music with a constant flow of aggressive energy boosted by a fine technical work on bass guitar and drums. On “Vaya Con Dios”, the band brings more influences of Groove/Thrash Metal from the years between 1993 and 1995 into the mix, with some influences from Industrial Metal in the way the vocals are used. And “Smoke All Day” brings back the traces of NYHC into the account, with a brutal grasp of intense riffs and nasty backing vocals.

After listening to “Vaya Con Dios”, one must ask SMOKE AXD why in the blazes it’s not a full-length!