Lobotomized

The thrash metal revival has by no means been a completely uniform affair, though there has definitely been a tendency towards dwelling upon certain parts of the original 80s scene by younger bands at the expense of others. The most widely popularized side of the original thrash coin was the more lighthearted yet still hard-hitting mode of more punk and crossover oriented bands as seen in Gama Bomb, Municipal Waste and several others, though following fairly close behind has been a sizable strain of more extreme bands taking their cues from the fringes of the Bay Area scene in Slayer and Dark Angel, along with the equally dark and dangerous character of the Teutonic Trio and a few death and black metal leaning acts out of Brazil. This latter school has seen a healthy number of adherents in the ongoing Greek scene, with Biotoxic Warfare being one of the latest additions.

At first glance, it's tempting to assume that this band's debut Lobotomized is a simple retread of past territory as typified in Suicidal Angels, but a somewhat different picture emerges. In contrast to the orthodox worship of Kreator and Destruction circa the mid 1980s that usually tends to go with an album like this, the general direction of this album veers a bit more in an elaborate manner where a greater degree of change and melodic contour accompany the usual assortment of spine-wrecking riff work. It essentially takes a number of the more technical elements of Coma Of Souls and merges in a recurring Middle-Eastern oriented flavor in the lead guitar work that further accentuates the death metal tendencies of this band's musical and vocal style. It goes beyond an occasional gimmick as would be the case on Metallica's "Wherever I May Roam" and gets into a stylistic niche territory that is somewhat comparable to Nile. In other words, the Greek musical influence on this album makes it as such one could guess this band's nationality based on the musical content, unlike Suicidal Angels who could easily be mistaken for a German band.

The freshness of this album can't really be understated, as while it maintains all of the necessary cliches of the original style it is emulating, it also adds a good deal more into the equation than usual. Beyond the vernacular musical tinges in the music is the recurring use of death metal tinged tremolo riffing to complement the chugging Bay Area skeleton, such as heard on much of "Dysphoric Reality", which wouldn't be out of place on a latter day Death album or even the earliest examples of the Gothenburg sound. Occasional acoustic guitar passages and layered semi-clean guitar passages to add depth to the crunchy thrash elements also play a big role in the opening instrumental "Mors Indecepta" and the title song "Lobotomized", further enveloping an otherwise conventional Teutonic meets Bay Area sound in a dissonant mist of darkness. But more than anything, the overall technical character of this album and the frequent referral to lead guitar noodling, that somewhat resembles Skolnick and Hammett but also leans in a Schuldiner and Murphy direction, is what makes it truly distinct.

If one were to isolate each moving part on this well oiled machine of an album, there is likely a good deal of precedence for all of it somewhere between 1985 and 1997, but when approaching this album as an inseparable stylistic whole, this is definitely an atypical album. Overall it has the same general air of darkness and horror that typifies a number of red-leaning thrash metal acts, but the exterior elements have been heightened in importance to the point that it ends up sounding very different from a typical Slayer or Sepultura emulation. Every musician involved offers some degree of stylistic adventurism into the mix that both accentuates their own respective skills and benefits the whole. A great number of bands have been discovering the various treasures of the past of late, but Biotoxic Warfare proves here to be one of those bands that shows how said treasures could apply to the future.