Review by Rick Eaglestone for MPM
When The Age Of Entitlement dropped back in 2019, I said it was one of the finest British thrash comebacks of the modern era, and I stand by every single word. But here’s the thing about Acid Reign that nobody tells you when you first fall down that particular rabbit hole: they are constitutionally incapable of doing anything the easy way.
Most bands get their classic lineup back together, release a barnstormer, and then cruise. Maybe a tour, a live album, a greatest hits package with one new track tacked on for the completists. Not these lot. No, H and Pete looked at the considerable momentum they had built, watched Marc, Paul and Cooky all exit stage left, and instead of folding up the tent and calling it a day — which, let’s be honest, would have been the path of least resistance — they did what Acid Reign have always done. They pushed forward. They found new people. They got to work.
And what a result it is.
Daze Of The Week is the band’s fourth full-length and the first from what H has taken to calling Acid Reign 3.0. Go into this expecting a comfortable legacy act playing it safe, and you will be brought up short before the first track has finished, because this record comes out swinging and doesn’t ease up for the better part of 48 minutes.
Let’s talk about the new blood, because it matters enormously to understanding why this record hits the way it does. Matt Smith on lead guitar is one of the most exciting additions to any British metal band in recent memory. He plays with a combination of ferocity and melodic intelligence that gives every track an extra dimension, and H has been forthright in saying publicly that Matt is the finest guitarist he has ever had the privilege of working alongside. Four years into his tenure, this album makes that assessment very difficult to argue with.
Johnny Grimley behind the kit is a revelation. A seasoned touring veteran previously with Shrapnel, he had stepped away from drumming for health reasons before a message arrived that changed everything. What he delivers on this record is powerful and technically assured, but never showy — he serves the songs, breathing with them rather than battling over them. Then there’s Darren McGillivray on rhythm guitar, whose path here — lifelong devotee, a man H was proud to MC the wedding of, veteran of his own outfit Wrath Of Man who had supported Acid Reign many times — is one of those stories that reminds you why underground metal communities’ matter. He plays with authority and precision, meshing with Grimley to give the whole thing an unshakeable foundation. And Pete Dee, bassist and H’s right-hand man since 2015, remains the driving force in the low end that ties everything together.
The album opens with The Who Of You, a deliberately unsettling intro — creeping, coiled, waiting — before the full weight of the band arrives and the track explodes into a confrontational assault of dense, dark thrash riffing. H sounds angrier here than I can recall hearing him in years, and that fury feels entirely purposeful. The identity-skewering lyric asks some pointed questions in a tone that makes it clear it doesn’t much care for your answers. It’s a thunderclap of an opener and sets the temperature for everything that follows.
Note the spelling because it absolutely matters. The title track in all but name, this is Acid Reign at their most politically sharp — a broadside against the complicit and the disengaged, delivered with a melodic sensibility that makes it memorable without taking any of the edge off. It stomps, snarls, and carries a punk attitude running alongside those classic thrash guitar tones. At just over five minutes it earns its length, and the wordplay between album title and track title is entirely deliberate. Not a weak note anywhere.
No Truth is the most direct track on the album, and deliberately so. No preamble, no easing in — just a riff-first assault that gets where it’s going in three minutes and forty seconds and wastes nothing along the way. Pete’s bass is right up in the mix, driving everything forward with a weight that makes the whole thing feel enormous. Grimley’s drumming is a powerhouse throughout. A steamroller of a track.
Conniption King is the one that entirely justifies the runtime. Where much of the record hits hard and fast, this one has the confidence to pull back slightly, operating at a tempo that allows the central riff more room to breathe and turn genuinely menacing before the full assault arrives. It is aimed squarely at a very specific breed of unhinged, suited authority, and it builds a convincing case against its subject across every one of those six minutes. The emotional depth here is something the band’s detractors rarely credit them for — it’s real, and it lands.
Don’t be misled by that title into expecting the album’s quiet moment on Alonely as This one moves — a driving, interlocking guitar figure between Smith and McGillivray that propels the track forward with enormous energy, underpinned by a groove that makes it physically difficult to stand still. The portmanteau at the heart of it — alone and lonely collapsed into a single, more uncomfortable word — carries the emotional weight entirely on its own while the music refuses to slow down. One of the album’s finest moments of collaboration between the two guitarists.
Blind Lies is arguably the album’s most ferocious outpouring It arrives like something considerably darker and more brutal than the tracks surrounding it — harder-hitting, more relentless, H’s vocal at its most confrontational as he tears through the landscape of manufactured truth and deliberate self-deception. At over six minutes it still feels like there is more to say on the subject when it ends. The album’s most uncompromising moment, and an important one.
There is a punk urgency threaded through Sorrowsworn that gives it immediate accessibility without sacrificing any of its force, and the lyrical subject matter — contemporary, recognisable, quietly furious — resonates in a way that extends beyond the usual thrash audience. Worth noting that Russell contributes additional vocals here, adding a further layer of texture to what is already a compelling performance from H. The music video is worth seeking out.
In just over three minutes H navigates the central tension in Old Young Man — the young man still alive inside someone the world has started treating as a veteran — without a wasted syllable. The directness of it is what makes it land. No throat-clearing, no preamble, no cushioning. It sits at the heart of an uncompromising run of tracks in the album’s second half and holds its own comfortably.
The album’s lead single, and a logical first choice. Fantastic Passion is Acid Reign doing what Acid Reign do better than almost anyone else — riff-heavy, relentlessly paced thrash delivered with a grin and a complete absence of restraint. The gang vocals are going to be something else in a live setting. It’s also worth flagging that ex-Haken guitarist Charlie Griffiths steps in for the first and third solos, and his contributions are seamlessly integrated — an excellent addition to an already excellent track.
Centre Of Everything Closes the album in a way that genuinely surprises. It begins quietly — running water, a cleaner guitar tone, and H singing rather than attacking, exploring a different range and showing considerable control — before the band gradually builds toward a closing statement that functions as a proper lesson in British heavy metal. Grand without being overblown, it ties together threads the album has been laying down throughout, and it earns its position as the final word. The ending fades deliberately. That’s a choice. It suits them.
There are moments listening to Daze Of The Week where you find yourself breaking into a grin against your better judgement, and those moments are a reliable indicator of something that genuinely works. This is not a band living off accumulated goodwill. This is not a lineup change that diluted anything. This is Acid Reign in 2026 — four albums in, 41 years since H first picked up a microphone in Harrogate, and producing some of the most vital music of their career.
Days of the Week Track listing:
- The Who Of You
- Daze Of The Weak
- No Truth
- Conniption King
- Alonely
- Blind Lies
- Sorrowsworn
- Old Young Man
- Fantastic Passion
- Centre Of Everything
Line-up:
Matt Smith – Lead Guitar
Darren Mcgillivary – Rhythm Guitar
Pete Dee – Bass
Johnny Grimley – Drums
Howard H Smith – Vocals
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4kekrf5PjYCFlInGnVYhl0
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acidreignuk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acid.reign.thrash
