Barbatos
Let's Fucking Die!
7.6
The most primal, bestial, and raw riffs you will hear in your deprived life comprise most, if not all, of Barbatos' fourth full-length, Let's Fucking Die!. This is no-bullshit blackened thrash from Japan's two finest genre exporters, Yasuyuki Suzuki and Youhei, both of whom are also responsible for Abigail and Cut Throat. Expect no more and certainly no less from this rather prolific and hardworking duo.
Though it's easy to dismiss this as yet another phone-it-in black/thrash hybrid affair, the musicianship is exceptional (LISTEN to some of these solos, damn it), the songwriting is often superb, and there is an obvious sense of passion written all over this release. Sure, the subject matter is firmly tongue-in-cheek, but that doesn't mean that the music is a joke. Stack this up with any of last year's thrash albums and it will, without a doubt, shred at least 80% of the competition. It's catchy in the same way that Ghoul's Splatterthrash was, but it's just a little more linear. There's none of that rockabilly experimental shit here. Toxic Holocaust wouldn't be an entirely fair comparison, but the tone and pace is similar enough. This should come as no surprise considering Toxic Holocaust's own Joel Grind has lent his vocals to a number of Barbatos tracks in the past.
If you consider the fact that track titles include "Beer is My Leader," "Crazy as Hell," "Grave Violator," and "Sodomy at the Graves," you would have to be stupid to guess that this is anything but in your face thrash. Hell, I don't even think you have to really like black metal at all to like this stuff. Yes, the vocals are derived slightly from black metal and the drums are more relentless than most of the weakened, diluted tripe we call thrash today, but the riffs are closer to thrash than anything I've heard from Slayer in years.
Nine of the 16 tracks on Let's Fucking Die! are under 3 minutes. Five of those 9 are under 2 minutes. Now what did I say about straightforward? Taking that grind ethic of mashing every essential piece of a song and turning it into a 2 and a half minute thrashfest is one hell of an idea and it is executed to near-perfection here. If you're a thrash maniac like me and you like your songs fun, vulgar, and short, picking this up is a no-brainer.
