Violated’s Only Death Awaits opens with Jesse Ventura’s famous “I ain’t got time to bleed” line sampled from the film Predator, and then commences to chew through the speakers like a  hungry piranha.  And by piranha, I mean Exodus.  Though hailing from Kristiansund, Norway, Violated takes primary inspiration from the San Francisco Bay area thrash sound of the early to mid-eighties.  Only Death Awaits will not ascend to the lofty heights of classics like Kill ‘Em All and Bonded By Blood, but Violated do a respectable job of capturing the savage vibe of those seminal recordings.

From a riff standpoint, Violated has the classic sound nailed down.  The band’s meaty, chugging rhythms are highlighted, with just enough melody and syncopation to keep things interesting.  On a few occasions some harmonic squeals and other modern elements crop up, but on the whole the band sticks to the traditional thrash building blocks of palm muting, and power chords.  Sonically, as well, Violated stays true to their inspiration with a snarling mid-ranged guitar tone, that screams eighties Marshall.  The drumming is similarly appropriate:  aggressive, but not so frantic that groove is abandoned, and not so swamped in double bass that it sounds like a typewriter.

Violated’s biggest short coming is in the vocals of HansWik, whose gruff bellow lacks the character of Paul Baloff’s rabid bark or young James Hetfield’s adolescent shriek’s.  To make matters worse, Wik makes some ill-advised attempts to carry a tune, such as in the chorus of “Lack of Empathy.”  The results are not so awful as to be painful, but such attempts at melody sap the songs of momentum and dull the edge of the band’s otherwise well honed attack.

On Only Death Awaits, Violated thrashes hard and well, but the band’s style is certainly nothing the average metal fan has not heard many, many, many, times before.