Interceptor — Tales of Mayhem (Review by Juntaro Hayashida)

Released on June 22nd, 2024; this album might as well have been disguised as being released in 1984 instead. Tales of Mayhem is the debut album by American Metal band Interceptor.

Album cover for Interceptor’s Tales of Mayhem

Instead of opting to abide by the “Bring back 80s Thrash” wankery that a lot of other young metal bands are choosing to resort to (and failing miserably, might I add), Interceptor decide to bring back the first wave era of Black Metal. Their style, very akin to the likes of Venom and Motorhead, evidently shows through the raw Cronos-like vocal work and also heavy, fuzzy bass work courtesy of Blake “Bulldozer” Arendell, the crunchy, near buzzsaw guitar sound of Johnny “Reaper” Faiella and the warm, thumpy, occasionally slow but also fast drum pounding of Tyrant. The raw vibe of Tales of Mayhem gives me the impression that, instead of recording in a professional studio setting, the band just opted to record in their rehearsal space and call it a day. Not a bad thing by any meaning. Instead, shows that the band has more humble beginnings.

Interceptor. From Left to Right: Johnny “Reaper” Faiella, Blake “Bulldözer Arenvurst” Arendell & Tyrant. If I could describe this band in two words, it would be “Venom Reincarnate”

A few standout tracks that I really enjoyed were “Tales of Mayhem” (The album’s namesake) for giving me a “Welcome to Hell” by Venom vibe. “Bestial Night” for sounding more like a Hardcore Punk song but, again, with the Cronos-like vocals from the one and only Bulldozer himself. “Into the Hellmouth” not only starting off more like a Motorhead song instead of a Venom song for a change but also for essentially being a song about Jet Fighters and War. Gives me more of a Sodom vibe in terms of lyrics and finally, “50 Megatons” for being more slow and sounding like a song you would hear in a movie about a biker gang.

One naïve and simple minded reviewer on Metal Archives (See here) blatantly accused this band of being a Venom “Ripoff”. Even going as far as to call Tales of Mayhem an “embarrassment”, claiming that the band was “unoriginal and boring from the start” and advising anyone stupid enough to read their review to not listen to the album. Evidently, the pinnacle of naïveté and borderline retardation from a Slam Metal and Deathcore fan. Who’d have thought?

Final thoughts.

Taking into consideration that Venom haven’t released any new material in five years and people are constantly yearning for the 80s era of Metal to come back, I strongly suggest that you do give Interceptor’s Tales of Mayhem a shot. Who knows, maybe you’ll be influenced enough by them to form your own metal band and continue the vibe. We already have a Motorhead inspired band and now we have a Venom inspired band with the existence of Interceptor… all we need now to complete the holy trinity of new, hard hitting metal is a Bathory inspired band.