SPACE CHASER • Watch The Skies • LP

This Charming Man Records

SPACE CHASER from Berlin are winning plenty of fans in the local speed-thrash metal scene!

On Watch The Skies, they shred like there’s no tomorrow. Alongside two re-recorded tracks from the Decapitron EP, the album features eight brand-new songs from Germany’s thrash shooting stars.

If you liked the Decapitron EP, get ready to have your mind blown. Everything fits here: the sound, the aesthetic, and the look of the five band members—as if they escaped the 1980s in a time machine. Spandex, hi-tops, perms, and leather vests are as present as the blisteringly fast thrash riffs and songs about alien invasions and flying saucers.

Musically, SPACE CHASER (four of the five are under 25!) pull off a technically perfect mix, blending influences from early Destruction, D.R.I., Tankard, Exodus, Overkill, and Agent Steel. You can also hear echoes of Deathrow, Testament, Exumer, Anthrax, and Living Death, but all from the mid-’80s, when metal was fresh, dangerous, and far from mainstream.

The high-pitched, sometimes soaring vocals (think Bruce Dickinson) and insanely fast riffing immediately set these five apart as outsiders—something almost nobody does today, but they’re clearly having a blast! To my ears, it sounds incredibly cool—this is the perfect soundtrack for a beer-soaked summer of old-school speed metal about UFOs, zombies, the undead… and yes, beer. 

And almost forgot: production and recording were handled by none other than Harris Johns, the legend behind classic records from Sepultura, Kreator, and more. The result is a massive sound—80s-inspired, slightly beefed-up, but not overly polished. A true thrash powerhouse.