EP REVIEW: The Beginning Of The End – Tulkas

At this point, thrash metal feels like it’s been around since time immortal. Whether you’re MEGADETH or METALLICA, ANTHRAX or SLAYER, EXODUS or TESTAMENT; the art of lightning-fast shredding and battering ram double-bass drums will always be something those attuned to thrash can appreciate. Mexico’s TULKAS are clean-cut defenders of the faith. Across 2016’s Freedom Thoughts and 2018’s Take The World, the quintet profess their love for the golden era of thrash metal. On their latest EP, The Beginning Of The End, they shift their sonic realm towards new sights. 

Whilst TULKAS do tend to hold on tightly to the trash metal tropes of the past, they’ve begun to embed elements of progressive thrash metal. Sure, Devastation By Greed is a halfway house for fans of SLAYER and OVERKILL. Sure, there’s a cover of The Shortest Straw by METALLICA that sounds as if it’s fronted by a half-decent Tom Araya impersonator. Sure, there’s moments where guitarists José Chávez and Edgar Castañeda drift off into Rust In Peace-era MEGADETH noodling. But there’s also glimmers of evolutionary shifts in their sound. Extinction hits your ear drums like a tonne of bricks. Drummer Aruh Cárdenas sets off the fireworks with a double-bass drum attack that wouldn’t feel amiss on a WARBRINGER album whilst the compellingly complex structures that they situate the riffs within is up there with the likes of HAVOK.

The good news is TULKAS know how to play balls-to-the-wall thrash metal like it’s the back of their hands. The bad news is TULKAS just know how to play balls-to-the-wall thrash metal like it’s the back of their hands. The Beginning Of The End is a brilliant batch of songs if you’re looking for a dose of viscerally violent thrash. There’s potential littered throughout, too. There’s a method to their madness, sure. However, the execution falls a little flat at the finish. 

In fact, TULKAS are at their best on tracks like Devastation By Greed, where they’re ripping into old-school rulebooks. It’s when they start experimenting with their progressive thrash ideals they begin to fall flat. The title track is as heavy as it gets, vocalist Javier Trapero delivering a devastating dose of growl-laden screams. It’s almost the best song on the record, that is until they start messing about with time structures they don’t really understand. Twangy finger-plucking exercises in lounge music arrive midway and completely upset the dynamicity and pace of the track. When they’re sounding as on form as ever, it’s hard to fathom why they’d fling themselves so far out of their comfort zones. 

The Beginning Of The End, at the sum of its parts, is a palette cleanser ahead of their next full-length adventure, so in any case, it should be taken with a pinch of salt. If TULKAS can tap into the era of thrash they want to thrive under, they’ll be onto a winner as they’re more than capable of bringing the noise.

Rating: 7/10

The Beginning Of The End is set for release on August 28th via Noble Demon Records.

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