Origin:	Miami, Florida, USA
Genres:	Traditional Metal

Page online:	August 23, 2011
Last update/review:	October 18, 2015

Black Tide

A band of youngsters seemingly out of nowhere are signed to a major (and not particularly metal-focused) label and are touted as rising stars -- this is a recipe for extreme suspicion for hardened metal fans. Worse, several point to these guys as the future of thrash metal, which is laughable -- regardless of how good the band is or isn't, thrash metal this is not. Anyway, this band dates back to 2004, when its founding members were as as young as 10-13 years old, and by the time of their debut album in 2007, all four guys were still less than 20 years old and the vocalist was only 15. As to the album ... opener "Shockwave" sounds like it was lifted straight off Motley Crue's Too Fast For Love, and while Crue isn't a primary influence or soundalike, it sets the tone for the rest of the album -- this is heavily 80's-inspired hard rock/metal, with lots of harmonized riffing and melodic, not terribly powerful vocals (though to be fair, his performance isn't bad for a 15-year-old). While their influences are clearly 80's-based, this isn't a retro band, in fact they have a clear modern metal flair, in a way similar to bands like Trivium or Avenged Sevenfold, though these aren't direct soundalikes. The only real thrash moment is on their cover of Metallica's "Hit The Lights", and even here the song sounds far less thrashy than the original, though one could say they did their own take of the song rather than to perfectly replicate the original. It's hard to say where a band like Black Tide will go -- with Interscope's backing they could become a Next Big Thing, or they could just as easily get tossed aside like many a major label reject.