Review of Various Artists - Thrashing Like A Maniac

Whoo-freakin'-hoo, a compliation CD. Sensing that your local record shop needs a few more coasters in the 'Various Artists' rack to compliment the dust-caked copies of Identity Four and Death Metal's Greatest Hits, Earache has gathered a motley crew of new-school thrash revivalists for this 16-track exhibition, aptly (and generically) titled Thrashin' Like A Maniac. Like most collections, this one is extremely hit-or-miss. Moreso this time around, because the contributing bands all sound largely similar, making it fairly easy to weed the bees from the cheese. For the indecisive consumer that is confused as to which denim-and-leather clad youngsters to rally behind, this is a sufficient tool for sampling; but then again, so is Myspace.com, where you can hear roughly four songs from each band for free. But, hey, if you want to give Earache ten bucks for one track per artist, that shit's between y'all.

Unless you've spent the last two years spelunking and subsisting on raw fish, you'll have a pretty damn good idea what's in store. This is denim vest-rocking, aviator-sporting, "we aren't trying to be ironic" thrash metal. The new breed's heavyweights are in full force (and on loan) here, standing pretty damn tall over the rest of the group. Municipal Waste's frenetic eneregy sticks out like a compound fracture, and Warbringer's OTT-intense vocalizations and soloing are unmatched. Evile, stoutly serious as they are, suffer slightly from the inclusion of their hokiest track, "Thrasher", and Dekapitator carry an intangible swagger that outshines the meat-and-potatoes nature of their attack. Surpisingly, the shining star of this collection is Wisconsin's Lazarus, who show that they can not only hang with the present-day darlings, but can kick even more ass. Watch out for those dudes, because like the other top-tier contenders, they don't rely on beer/zombie/nuclear meltdown lyrical cliches and/or coattails from the 1980s for attention -- they just write good fucking heavy metal songs.

Unfortunately, some of these other bands put their entire bankroll into such eyeball-rolling goofiness. Album openers Bonded By Blood gallop their way through a forgettable lesson in shameless mimicry, potentially opening the doors for bands named Ride The Lightning and Reign in Blood to get free rides to bullet belt heaven. Deadfall has a riffing style identical to that of Municipal Waste (in turn, having a riffing style identical to DRI), though void of similar personality. Mutant --seriously, Mutant? -- deliver a yelping chorus of "Psycho Suuuuuuuurgery!!!" that immediately ties them to Tourniquet...which is not a good thing.

And, yeah, Gama Bomb and Violator turn in some fun performances, but they are still cliched as hell and forgettable as fuck. Honestly, after sixteen tracks of this stuff, the whole thing becomes a little off-putting; this genre's newfound spark is still fairly new, and it seems as if it's already being run into the ground. Earache shoulders much of the responibility for this, by shoving Repka-style artwork down our collective throat and signing every band that has scratched-and-sniffed a Sodom backpatch. Also, putting gaudy comps like these out there and pretending that they have the same impact as they did before the Internet exploded is asinine. The world simply doesn't need sixteen bands that sound like this, and we certainly don't need to ingest another Earache cash-grab to hear them. Want to support young thrashers? Go buy an Evil Army or Hammerwhore album, and leave this thing on the rack next to Return of the Rock.

Tracklisting:

        1.     Immortal Life - Bonded By Blood
        2.     Thrasher - Evile
        3.     Art Of Partying, The - Municipal Waste
        4.     Deathstrike Command - Dekapitator
        5.     Massive Execution - Fueled By Fire
        6.     Corrosion - Decadence
        7.     Total War - Warbringer
        8.     Overload - SSS
        9.     Zombie Brew - Gama Bomb
        10.    Exumer - Merciless Death
        11.    Resistance Is Futile - Deadfall
        12.    Last Breathe - Lazarus
        13.    War Is Hell - Toxic Holocaust
        14.    Psycho Surgery - Mutant
        15.    Atomic Nightmare - Violator
        16.    Twilight Of The Flies - Send More Paramedics

Release Details

Various Artists

Thrashing Like A Maniac

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