HELLS HEADBANGERS is proud to present the long-awaited fifth album of WHIPSTRIKER, Cry of Extinction, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
A cult name in the diehard metal underground, since their formation in 2008, WHIPSTRIKER have prolifically pursued an intense and timeless vision of speed metal. All seen under the auspices of selfsame mainman Whipstriker, these Brazilian bastards faithfully cobble together the best and most bellicose elements of classic Venom, Motorhead, Onslaught, Sodom, and Warfare and proceed to level all posers in their path with a personality that's devilish and debaucherous. Through it all, WHIPSTRIKER's discography has been bursting at the seams with split 7"s, but they last released a full-length in 2018, Merciless Battery, for new label home HELLS HEADBANGERS. Some more splits followed the next few years, but for all intents and purposes, the band have been quiet since 2021.
That's all about to change with WHIPSTRIKER's LONG-awaited fifth album, Cry of Extinction. Its title something of a railing against the dying of the light, Whipstriker and crew proceed to rumble & roll with a newfound urgency - and poignant power. Indeed, the ingredients to the ever-sturdy WHIPSTRIKER aesthetic are well and accounted for - essentially, Venom's rawness run through speed metal riffing - but there's a pronounced melodicism and deftness of approach that earmark Cry of Extinction as an exciting new development in the WHIPSTRIKER world: all's not all gnarl all the time, in other words. That melodicism plus the ever-so-slightly more-atmospheric recording make the Brazilians' highway-charging anthems here approachable to not just speed metallers and blackthrash freaks but also those inclined to the traditional metal arts; WHIPSTRIKER, after all, are a heavy METAL band. Cementing their roots in such is the cover of Destruction's "Satan's Vengeance," featuring guest vocals from Daniel Avenger, guitarist of German thrash institution Nocturnal and countless other hordes. Or, witness the ten-minute closer "Military Scum" to hear WHIPSTRIKER hit a fever pitch of intensity, dynamics, and epic majesty.
To usher forth the release of Cry of Extinction, WHIPSTRIKER will be performing live for the first time since 2019, opening for Venom in São Paulo this November. A full European tour is currently being scheduled for 2025. Posers, beware!
