Premiere: H2S04’s Thrashtastic British Bangla Testament
Bay Area style thrash by way of Bangladesh you’re bound to love.
It’s always fascinating when a heavy metal release can teach you something, and not just how sad it is to see grown ass men get upset by a semi famous woman wearing a metal t-shirt. No, sometimes metal can actually teach you about serious, heavy subject matter. Enter H2SO4.
Hailing from Sylhet, Bangladesh, H2SO4 have quite the history to draw from for musical inspiration, but for their debut EP, British Bangla Testament, they’ve gone to one of the darkest times in the Bengal region’s history: The British rule of the Indian subcontinent and the Bengal Famine of 1943. I admit that I am no world history major, so I have major knowledge gaps and this may not be new information to you, but these events were largely unknown to me. The band themselves refer to the famine as the “forgotten holocaust of Bengal,” so it certainly feels like the band wants to shed on light on these tragic events.
The music itself does a great job conveying the anger and despair of the tragedies, and does so in the vein of early Testament and Exodus. The eponymous opening track sounds like it could have been placed on The Legacy, but it it never comes across as any kind of hero worship. The thrash assault soon gives way to a disgustingly heavy march in “The Partition”, the guitars sounding like they’re collapsing upon themselves before finally doing so and giving way to much lighter distortion. The entire EP is really outstanding and worth your 20 minutes. Smash that MF play button and learn ya something.
British Bangla Testament is out tomorrow via God’s Eye Production. You can buy the EP here and give the band a like on Facebook here.
