Heavy Maytal - W.M.D : "Against All Warnings"

 

This Canadian thrash band offers a neck jerking take on technical thrash. They are not obsessed with capturing a retro sound , but incorporate many elements from that time, most notably the vocal, which are a higher pitched squawk on the first track. They locked into some of these riffs in a more breakdown like fashion, which bands like Sacred Reich did back in the day as well. The fleet fingered focus on riffing is what keeps them from being cross over despite the speed poured into the verses, they have twin guitar harmonies to break this but. its till feels kinda rushed.

"Kleptomania" finds more of a Vio-lence feel taking over the sound. There are enough accents and break downs to make it interesting. It's back to pouring on the speed for "Post-Human Predator".  The relentless thrashing maintains it's momentum with " the Black Expanse". There are some audiences who just want fast rowdy playing and these guys deliver that so if that is your thing it is going to appeal more to you than listeners who want more hook and groove in their thrash, which makes the songs more enduring when you think about bands like well... the Big Four, who earned that title for good reason. 

"March of Death' shows they can write those kinds of riffs but it's more of a two minute interlude than a working song, but "the Thin Red Line" takes from it and builds it's own identity  full of guitar solos. "Already Dead' is another racing blur of hyper-aggressive riffing. The vocals are more of a an accent not just on this song, but as a whole on this album, There are more melodic guitar parts but they guitar has to do all the heavy lifting to keep you hooked despite the drums and bass still contributing . The clean guitar in the middle helps to create the kind of dynamics this album needs more of . "Painful Vengeance" starts off with a more deliberate riff, so they are capable of creating them not so much knowing how to write with restraint. I will give this album an 8, because it works on many levels thanks to the dazzling chops these guys have na there is an audience for this kind of thing.