craveonline

By Jeremy Azevedo

“Black Tide” is a group of old school metal heads, most of which are still in school, as their ages range from as old as 19 to as young as 15. Despite their age, these kid shred like the swarthiest, beardiest, 40 year old Dio cover band you’ve ever seen.

 This is because the band was grown in test tubes by Interscope scientists, using the combined DNA of a tour bus full of Iron Maiden fans that crashed in 1983. The genetic protoplasm that would eventually become Black Tide was continually exposed to the 2CD “Monsters of Rock” collection (as seen on TV!) every waking moment of their incubation process (and also in the sleeping moments, too).


Black Tide kickin' it in Hell, being all like "whatever!"

On their debut album, “Light From Above”, Black Tide appears to have a lifetime’s worth of chops. It’s almost a little strange that a band like this that plays technical 80’s thrash metal solos all day long would be signed to Interscope, which has really become more of a mainstream hip hop label than anything else. Maybe they saw Black Tide as a cheap novelty act and an easy cash in because of their age and high level of playing ability. But after listening to “Light From Above”, I can tell you that this freak show will probably be around for quite some time, as they have as much potential as anyone to reach near “Dragonforce” levels of international acclaim for their blistering guitar work.

I’m not going to tell you what the “singles” are and all of that because this album really needs to be listened to from start to finish to really make sense. You can’t just download one song and think that this will represent the band as a whole. Really, each song is an attempt to wail even harder than the last, a struggle that needs to be witnessed from beginning to end in order to fully appreciate the METAL contained within. I will be shocked if these dudes are not featured on Guitar Hero or Rock Band by the next non-Aerosmith installment.

I give "Light From Above" 8 out of 10 stars
+1 if you really love the MEETAHL
-2 if you’re a little bitch that hates SHREDDING

Behind the scenes of Black Tide's totally metal new video for the song "Shockwave"