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Photo by Martin Kubowski / KUBO Fotoart

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"GET READY FOR THE THUNDER OF THE TEUTONIC STORM"

To the highly acclaimed debut "Thrash Command" (2012), the two at least equally strong successors "Venomizer" (2015) and "Knee-Deep In The Dead" (2018), as well as the anniversary box "Decade Of Revival", which commemorates the tenth anniversary was released by the band, the long-awaited fourth studio album by Swabian thrashers TRAITOR will finally follow in the summer of 2022 with "Exiled To The Surface". And that's a sly old dog in several ways.

The story of TRAITOR begins in 2009 when, after various fun projects by the individual band members, they finally got down to business. Two demos will be released in the same year. “Thrash Metal Victory” and “Inclination To Aggression” which get some pretty fat credits from the underground, so the direction is right. After another test balloon in terms of demos ("Nuclear Combat", 2010), the first full album is tackled. The Balingen guys threw in their debut, which really deserves the name “Thrash Command”. Located in the intersection of Bay Area and German thrash, the singing drummer Andreas Mozer, vocally reminiscent of the young Mille Petrozza, and his lads unleash a riff firework display as if shot by anti-aircraft guns.

At the end of 2013, Matthias Koch, a new guitarist, joined the band, who gave the guys a kick in the ass, as bassist Lorenz Kandolf reports: "Matthias is more technical than his predecessor, but loves old school thrash like us. We already had a few songs ready, but his standard saying was: This has to be more brutal.”

The scooped brutality and the floor-to-ceiling gas pedal suit TRAITOR damn well, and their reputation as a fantastic live band ensures that the old guard of Teutonic Thrash can come together and keep the four guys from Balingen a place in the upper sound check floors of the metal press. Or, even better, just record a song with them. This is what happened on the upcoming album "Exiled to The Surface". None other than Ruhrpott veteran Tom Angelripper from SODOM insisted on contributing his unmistakable voice on "Total Thrash", the title song delivered by TRAITOR to the documentary of the same name about Teutonic Thrash, which will be released in German cinemas on May 31st, 2022. What if that isn't a knighthood?! And otherwise the disc recorded by Kai Stahlenberg in Studio B doesn't have to hide behind its predecessors. On the contrary, the youngsters of yore have finally outgrown their infancy and can easily play with the big boys. After the atmospheric intro "Guilty As Charged", the drums are pounded so precisely that the neck muscles are begging for mercy after half the playing time at the latest, the title track "Exiled To The Surface" immediately cuts through the eardrum and the " 66 Exeter Street” could be found on Google Maps in SLAYERhausen. In addition, TRAITOR have come up with something very special. What? It won't be revealed (yet), but they are probably the first Metal band to be WHAMed by.

The lyrics were once again inspired by video games, films and series such as "Star Trek" or "The X-Files", the appropriate artwork was developed and created, as with "Decade Of Revival", by the Swedish artist Pär Olofson (EXODUS, ABORTED and many more. ).

If you still haven't got enough on your ears, we recommend the riff school "Riff-Command", which will be released this year, where the inclined listener can look over the guitarist's shoulder and then thrash his favorite songs. -Joni De Groot-

TRAITOR is:

Andreas Mozer – Drums, Main Vocals

Gerd Hery – Guitars, Background Vocals

Lorenz Kandolf – Bass

Matthias Koch - Guitars