Sonicide - Death By Sound
  Genre: Heavy Metal
  Release Date: 2003
  Label: Unsigned
  Band Web Site:

While many bands look to push the metal envelope even further, some bands are just content to smash you upside the head with some old-fashioned metal just like mama used to make! One of those bands is the Toms River, New Jersey-based power trio Sonicide.

Sonicide was formed in 1994 by guitarist Alice Axe, bassist Jim Hershey and drummer Tim Fonda. The Garden State trio soon grew tired of playing just cover tunes and decided to start writing their own material, drawing heavy inspiration from classic hard rock and metal bands like Steppenwolf, Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Judas Priest. The band had many obstacles to deal with on the road to recording their debut album, and being forced to rehearse in a set of refurbished chicken coops (yes! I said chicken coops!) for a time was the least of them. Near tragedy stuck the band when Alice was nearly forced to the brink of death due to several illnesses. Eventually, she won her battle and the band started to wreak havoc on the New Jersey club circuit once again. In 2003, the band digitally re-mastered and re-released their debut album, which was entitled Death By Sound.

For me, finding this band and this album was a revelation. While I enjoy slick production and fluid 100,000 miles a minute guitar solos, it is always cool to see a band give the middle finger to the modern hierarchy and just kick out slab after slab of raw, dirty, brutal and pure heavy metal! Sonicide calls their brand of heavy metal “Metal to die for," and it’s a just description. The songs on this album are a proverbial pack of zombies ready to feast on your rancid carcass. Are you ready to go back to the roots of metal? Then just push play and join me!

Dirty riffs and tones come out to play on this whole record. “Call Of The Grave” leads off with some rusty tones so abrasive they could cause instant corrosion on a brand new car. “Breakout” is probably my favorite song on the record with its super catchy hook and killer solo. Awesome song to listen to while driving in the car!

“Zombie Fever” is a song that shows off the band’s morbid sense of humor with its monster-creeping-through-a-graveyard riff, the wild shrieks of the solo and creepily distorted vocal line. A song that would be perfect for Halloween night. Hell, the whole album is suitable for scaring gangs of Trick-or-Treaters! Hey kids, you forgot your candy corn!

“No Salvation” marches steadily across your brain with its slow, but catchy riff. It burrows into your brain like one of those earwigs from Star Trek. “Prisoner of Time” picks up the pace a little bit, and if the power of the song hasn’t broken every bone in your body, then Alice’s rip-your-head-off solo in the middle of the song will. She really lets it rip!

Other highlights of the album include “Parasite," a nine-minute plus horror ride led by a steamroller riff and Tim’s Lemmy-esque vocal delivery. Another spooky gem! The dark and maggot-covered chords and the haunting vocal by Alice on “Mr. Death” reminds us that death will come for us all one day, and you cannot run from him. The classic rock goodness of “Changes” will put you in the mood to blast it far and wide across the beaches of South Jersey. I really love the feel of this song. The riff is so classic and addictive!

Tim takes the vocal duties again on the raucous title track, which closes out the album with more of the guitar trashing, bass thumping and drum destruction that you come to expect from Sonicide.

Musically, Sonicide delivers the classic metal goods! Alice rips out some great riffs and some of the dirtiest, moldiest, stuff-you-find-under-your-refrigerator solos you will hear this side of the Delaware River! The soloing will put you in mind of great metal guitarists of the past like Tony Iommi, Angus Young and Jimmy Page. Very bluesy and distorted, and oh so sweet, love it! Jim Hershey’s bass work has a low end which may destroy speakers at the right volume, so be careful! Tim Fonda pounds the skins with ferocity and brings on the feeling that the dead are about to pop up from under your feet! RUN! Vocally, the album is an acquired taste. The punky, almost new wave quality of Alice’s vocals are not going to win any awards, but they fit the music perfectly, and Tim’s scary (in a good way!) vocal delivery will make young children run for cover! The perfect style of vocals for an album which should be required by law to be played at all haunted houses and hayrides! The production on the album is perfect for the music. This doesn’t sound like it was recorded in 2003, more like 1973! Am I criticizing it? No! It would take away from the feel of the album if it sounded too clean, so quit your complaining and enjoy the music, you crybaby!

I’ve been checking out the local headlines in the South Jersey area, and it seems that Death By Sound has been responsible for the dramatic increase in cases of massive head trauma in that particular region! But don’t let that stop you from ordering Death By Sound! Those victims just could not handle the METAL! But you are here, and you read this page, so YOU CAN! BUY IT!

Review written by: Matt B.        
Date: August 16, 2006             
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5