Toxic Holocaust

A punitive thrash metal project influenced by hardcore punk, west coast hard rock, and proto-death metal bands of the '80s such as Discharge, Hellhammer, and Venom, Toxic Holocaust is largely a one-man operation run by Oregon native Joel Grind. Emerging in the late '90s, the project eventually expanded into a live entity, and by 2020 the group had issued six well-received full-length albums and multiple EPs. Grind founded the band in 1999 in the city of Portland. Writing and recording all of the group's music himself, he issued a pair of demos (1999's Radiation Sickness and 2002's Critical Mass) before unleashing the project's first full-length effort, Evil Never Dies, in 2003. The group's burgeoning popularity in the metal underground prompted Grind to take the enterprise out of the studio and onto the stage, so he hired a backing band and hit the road. However, the expanded version of Toxic Holocaust would not make its way into the studio for album number two. 2005's Hell on Earth once again saw Grind assume all duties, but he did manage to enlist renowned heavy metal artist Ed Repka (Megadeth, Death, etc.) to design the cover. Extensive touring followed, along with a recording contract with America's premier death metal label, Relapse Records. In addition to releasing the third Toxic Holocaust album, An Overdose of Death... (2008), Relapse reissued Evil Never Dies and Hell on Earth. The Gravelord EP arrived in 2009, followed in 2011 by the full-length Conjure and Command, which was the first Toxic Holocaust release to feature a full band, with Grind joined by bass player Phil Zeller and drummer Nick Bellmore. That same crew stayed aboard for 2013's Chemistry of Consciousness, but Grind would return to the one-man-band setup for 2019's dystopian technological takeover-themed Primal Future: 2019. ~ James Christopher Monger