Attacker - The God Particle - LP

U.S. heavy metal legends return with their first studio album in eight years! One of the early bastions of true U.S. metal, New Jersey’s Attacker is back to celebrate their 40th anniversary on The God Particle, a triumphant, eight-song classic metal offering! New Jersey heavy metal legends Attacker are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2024.

It’s a milestone marked by their influential 1985 Battle at Helm’s Deep debut and 1988 The Second Coming sophomore effort, as well as post- 2001 reformation full-lengths like 2004’s Soul Taker and 2006’s The Unknown that served as reminders of Attacker’s staying power. While it hasn’t always been easy for Attacker, founding member and drummer Mike Sabatini attributes the band’s longevity to their love of heavy metal music. That red thread and never-ending appreciation for what Attacker means to them and so many across the globe helps define the band’s newest studio foray, The God Particle. The follow-up to 2016’s Sins of the World LP and 2018’s Armor of the Gods EP was recorded at Sabatini’s Bandmother Recording Studio in Jersey City, New Jersey, from November 2023 to January 2024. The album was subsequently mixed by Sabatini alongside C.J. Scioscia, with mastering handled by Joe Lambert. As it stands, The God Particle is a tried-and-true dose of pure, unbridled heavy metal with ample broadsides of aggression and melody—both permanent elements of Attacker’s sound. It’s also clear that the band—rounded out by vocalist Bobby Lucas, the guitar tandem of Mike Benetatos and Jon Hasselbrink and bassist Brian Smith—has gelled into a formidable writing unit, offering what is perhaps Attacker’s most varied batch of songs. The album’s gestation period was longer than normal (see: Covid), but the extended time writing afforded Attacker the opportunity to craft new songs that are primed and ready for European festival sing-along participation.

Lucas is responsible not only for the album’s soaring choruses but also its concept, which is based on the Large Hadron Collider Particle Accelerator in Cern, Switzerland, that is used to create energetic collisions of particles like protons, breaking them into subatomic components that can be detected and studied. Adding to the intrigue: There was supposedly a satanic ritual performed at the Collider site to call in evil from another dimension. Whether that actually happened or not, it serves as the perfect tie-in to Marc Sasso’s cover art (DIO, HALFORD, MARVEL COMICS). But back to the 40th anniversary of Attacker. Sabatini has been on record that he was reluctant to reform the band during its 1990s dormancy. Only the passing of original guitarist Jim Mooney and vocalist John Leone (who performed on The Second Coming) reignited the Attacker fire. The band now exists to honor its storied legacy, but also to create new, compelling music to satisfy a worldwide fanbase who remains hungry for Attacker music.

Consider the job complete on The God Particle.