Forced Entry - Bone Crackin’ Fever

When the heads of the table of thrash history – your Metallica’s, your Anthrax’s, the rest of the big four and more – are mentioned, there is often a name conspicuous by its absence. Granted, it is likely not mentioned less out of a sense of people thinking they’re not worth mentioning and more so because, outside of the biggest of thrash heads, most people don’t know who Forced Entry are. This is heretical, frankly; of all the Seattle area thrash acts to make it mainstream (granted, not a huge amount), it’s baffling that they didn’t achieve more name recognition with just how good they are. 

Hell, they were a big part of the reason there even was a Seattle area thrash scene, so that if nothing else should tell you how influential they were behind the curtain. Founded in 1983 as Critical Condition and then changing up their name and their style in 1986, Forced Entry are a headbanger's dream. Fast-paced, highly technical and with absolutely no lack of attitude is how you want your thrash acts and they were all three in spades, ripping it up on two albums and a handful of EPs in an unfortunately short-lived career. Rumours have circled about a reunion on and off for years, but no luck so far. A good thrash renaissance is long overdue, in my mind. Everyone’s necks have had too long to heal and are starting to get brittle from underuse. 

So if you’ve never heard of Forced Entry before, let us introduce you to your new favourite thrash act with Bone Crackin’ Fever, our million-miles-an-hour Rock Song of the Week pick. This might be exactly the speedball remedy you need to get you over the final push to the weekend’s glorious freedoms. Unless you work Saturdays, in which case you’re likely just going to do your job three times as fast instead. Who said aggressive music wasn’t good for our nation’s children?