Review: “Submit Or Death” by Just One Fix

After three heavy hitting albums in a seven year stretch between 2007 and 2014 the silence from New Zealand Thrash Metal quartet Just One Fix has been deafening since. Now, armed for the apocalypse with a collection of fresh cuts and a new drummer in Ross Curtain (Silent Torture, ex-Helgorithms, ex-Enoch), they offer “Submit or Death“, their first studio material since the punishment beating that was album “Let Them Hate… So Long As They Fear“. For them, the dream began in 1998 when they named the band after a Ministry single, for some the nightmare is only just beginning…

A graceful, almost mournful acoustic melody with rising vibrant leads makes instrumental “Submission And Transition” the kind of introduction piece that captures the attention, cleansing the palate in preparation for the shape of punk to come. One of those tunes that threatens to burst into virtuoso flame but instead cuts short, it would be interesting to hear where they could have gone with it even if it’s not really what this band have been about. Rising from those flames, a track forged in the fires of hell itself rears its ugly head in “Gods And Devils“. A classic adrenaline pumping old school Thrash Metal cut from the heavier end of the genre, this one is very much in the vein of recent offerings from New Yorkers Executioner with all the hallmarks of the bands earlier releases. Flirting with Death Metal, Curtain offers up some blast beats before a gang chanted passage leads into a flamboyant whammy bar solo moment; if one cut screams “Run to the hills, Just One Fix are back!” then it’s this one. Taking a leaf from the book of Exodus, the mighty “Warzone” pounds the naysayers into submission with galloping drums and powerhouse riffs as Riccardo Ball screams about a tsunami of death. A slick transition into an atmosphere building slower brooding part before breaking out and going all out Speed Thrash attack is nothing short of masterful, confirming that this outfit have lost none of their hunger or ability to craft a classic Thrash tune.

More experimentation comes in the form of “Thorns“, which has nice almost tribal introduction before taking a surprising left turn. Perhaps wearing their influences on their collective sleeves without realising it “Thorns” takes a “Ride The Lightning” era Metallica riff and shape it into another blade with which to cut humanity. Getting funky with the bass from Ant Ward gives another dimension before Sharne Scarborough offers up sublime solo that sounds like it was crafted for the live arena, all the while Ball muses on classic genre themes making this one very hard to fault. It has that timeless quality in the sense that it could have been released at any point in the past 45 years and no one would have been any the wiser, while not sounding dated in any way, shape or form. The killing instinct is in evidence as the quartet rip through the blistering “Your Own God“, fuelled by the whirlwind percussion of Curtain, the new drummer sounding like he’s been part of this band from the very beginning. The riffs are an unstoppable force of nature and this one feels like a DUI waiting to happen, if it had been a new single from the aforementioned San Francisco Bay residents then people would be screaming about it as if the Kings were back. It’s that good. The cliché that has become all killer, no filler is one that is true of this record as “Hades Rising” ensures the short but oh so sickly sweet affair concludes on a high. As if the title doesn’t give it away, Ball laments the idiocies of man and calls for the end with fire and brimstone [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. Submission And Transition (Intro)
2. Gods And Devils
3. Warzone
4. Thorns
5. Your Own God
6. Hades Rising

“Submit Or Death” by Just One Fix is out 6th May 2024