Greenwashing

I liked Appalachian Terror Unit's previous EP just enough to pick up this full-length when I saw it in the discount bin of my local record store. I've always liked crust, particularly when its seasoned with a strong helping of crossover, and ATU delivers a solid shot. Musically, this record is pretty killer: the riffs are dense, frenetic, and fast, incorporating signature thrash tremolo and occasional sludgy doom breaks and clean picking accents; the bass too is a decent anchor, and the drummer is capable at multiple tempos and doesn't shy from more metal accentuations (blasts, heavy fills, double-bass). ATU change up their style just enough track-to-track to keep from sinking into typical punk monotony and each time I put this on, it's easy to headbang all the way through.

There are problems however. The first problem is the vocals. In typical crust fashion, there are dueling vocals and while I think that choice is overused, some bands can still pull it off. Not ATU. They lean way too heavily on their primary singer, whose voice is a reedy, screechy mess when she's yelling and a needling whine when she's just ranting (something the band does way too much). The back-up singer has some nice husky growls but he's only used intermittently. The spoken-word passages get irritating and repetitive. We get the point from your lyrics sheet, no need to hammer us over the head with your message. And their message is anarcho-primitive, which is fine, though the immediate hypocrisy of such a message being transmitted via vinyl is enough to make me shake my head in amusement.

At the end of the day, I only put this on when I've exhausted the classics of the genre. If you're looking for a quick and easy blast of crusty crossover thrash, Greenwashing will sate but it'll never supplant its influences.