Havok’s Point of No Return EP Review: To the ‘Point’

Colorado thrashers Havok have returned with a new EP in between their hectic touring schedule entitled “Point of No Return.” The EP features two new songs and two covers packed with their signature blend of thrash insanity.

The first song is the title track, “Point of no Return.” It’s a cool number with all the right punches including a heavy bass line that grooves the track along. This track has a bit of thrash legends Destruction influence on it. The weird thing is that despite being a heavy song, the song appears a little more radio friendly than most of Havok’s other songs. Expect a video for this one.

The next song “Cradle to the Grave” features a cool drum intro with the bass again prominent. It almost seems like Overkill came into the studio and gave Havok some pointers. The vibe and especially David Sanchez’ vocal delivery sounds like Overkill’s Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth on the verse and Destruction’s Schmier on the chorus. “Cradle to the Grave” is a cool song and will hopefully make it to the next album.

Now for the covers. The band chose to do Sepultura’s “Arise” and Slayer’s “Postmortem” and “Raining Blood.” You could say there are really three covers on this EP but techically the Slayer songs are the same track because they bleed into each other just like they do on the album “Reign in Blood,” so you could argue about that amongst your peers.

Havok’s cover of Sepultura’s “Arise” is interesting.Sanchez does his best Max Cavelera impression while still putting his own spin on it. The band does a really cool job of paying tribute to one of their heroes, whom they were lucky enough to tour with this past spring.

The Slayer cover(s) are also done well. Havok have been covering these songs the same way live for years, so it goes without saying that they’ve mastered them. Sanchez’ Tom Araya scream in “Postmortem” is one of the highlights of this cover merge. The “Raining Blood” cover is also great. It’s a nice touch that they added the rain effects like the original version.

Havok’s new EP “Point of No Return” is a solid EP that does what its supposed to do. It gives us a preview of what the next album is going to sound like and a nice big “thank you” from the covers. The mix is good, the new songs show promise of a bright third release and the covers are done well. Havok will continue to tour and record throughout the year so be sure to catch this behemoth on the road.