Hidden Gems & Guilty Pleasures: Whipstriker (Brazil)
Whipstriker (Black/Thrash/Speed Metal/Punk, Brazil)
Whipstriker is a black/thrash/speed metal band from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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, Motörhead, 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-inches, but they last released a full-length in 2018, »Merciless Artillery«, for new label home Hells Headbangers Records. 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.
Whipstriker’s long-awaited fifth album »Cry Of Extinction« was released on March 7th, 2025 through Hells Headbangers Records. CD, LP, tape, digital & t-shirt available HERE.
To usher forth the release of »Cry Of Extinction«, Whipstriker are currently scheduling a full European tour for 2025. Posers, beware!
Courtesy of Hells Headbangers Records
Selected discography:
• »Crude Rock ‘N’ Roll« (Deathrash Armageddon, 2010)
• »Troopers Of Mayhem« (Urubuz Records, 2013)
• »Only Filth Will Prevail« (PRC Music, 2016)
• »Merciless Artillery« (Hells Headbangers Records, 2018)
• »Seven Inches Of Hell – The Complete Collection« (Goatprayer Records, 2020)
• »Cry Of Extinction« (Hells Headbangers Records, 2025)
Whipstriker is:
Whipstriker – Bass, Vocals
Witchcaptor – Guitars
Doomhammer – Guitars
Skullkrusher – Drums
FFO: Venom, Motörhead, Onslaught, Sodom, Warfare, Destruction, Midnight, Bulldozer, Slayer, Inepsy
Links:
Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp1 | Bandcamp2 |Spotify | YouTube
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well