Homicide Hagridden – Effect Lucifero

“Effect Lucifero” is the third full-length album from Italian thrash band Homicide Hagridden. While the Italian thrash scene is absolutely bursting with new talent, Homicide Hagridden has been around a lot longer than most of their peers, having formed in the mid 1990s. Fortunately, nothing about their sound reflects the thrash scene of the 90s, as “Effect Lucifero” is a very straight forward thrash album, showing plenty of influence from any number of great, classic thrash bands. In fact, the vocals on this album are quite similar to Slayer’s Tom Araya. The only difference is that Homicide Hagridden’s singer seems to rely a lot more on the upper register. The result is an album that features a ton of really wild yelling. This approach is surprisingly effective because it amps up the intensity all the time.

The one caveat to that comment is that “Effect Lucifero” is only brutal when the band’s vocalist yells rather than sings. There are a couple of tracks (“Lie To Me An Angel” being the main offender) where he tries singing instead. Unfortunately the result isn’t all that good. Not unlike most thrash vocalists, he can’t really sing that well, and would be better off with his harsher approach.

From a musical standpoint, “Effect Lucifero” checks all the right boxes. The production is monstrous, which is particularly evident through the crunchy guitars and punchy bass drum. There is no shortage on riffs throughout the record (in fact, there’s pretty much an overload of awesome riffs), and they run the gamut from straight-up Exo-riffs to more melodic and unique riffs. It also helps that most of the album is speedy and upbeat. The aforementioned “Lie To Me an Angel” is an interesting example; as noted, it does get weird with the focus on singing, but then the second half of the song erupts into something way thrashier, and is a definite highlight of the record. 

On the whole “Effect Lucifero” is a well-executed record. It’s not often I think a band would be better if they were more one-dimensional, but Homicide Hagridden is at their best when they ignore experimentation and go straight for the throat. Regardless, the mix of sounds here is interesting, and most of it is still focused on thrash, so this album is a worthy listen!

Be sure to check out and like Homicide Hagridden on Facebook!

Highlights

All of it

Final Rating

3.5/5 or 70%. 

Written by Scott