Beast on My Back (B.O.M.B.)

Long Island's Crumbsuckers are a band that require no introduction to fans of either hardcore punk or metal: their 1986 debut "Life of Dreams" is a crossover thrash genre classic, some of the members went on to form Pro-Pain and they were even name-dropped on an episode of "Miami Vice" (still trying to figure out how that happened). Their sophomore and last full-length, 1988's "Beast On My Back" serves as twisted swan song to the classic crossover thrash movement as well as a bridge to future genres of both metal and of course hardcore.

1986s "Life of Dreams" came out in a period of various crossover thrash classics being released : Stormtrooper of Death's "Speak English or Die" in '85, Cryptic Slaughter's "Convicted" in '86, Suicidal Tendencies "Join the Army' in '87. All of these releases served to solidify the genre, but "Beast On My Back" (often abbreviated as "B.O.M.B.") takes all those influences and adds a few that were hitherto never conceived to be added to crossover thrash. End result: it blows the lid off the genre and takes it to its logical conclusion.

It opens with the simple but effective piano intro of "Breakdown" and before you realize what the boundaries of what crossover thrash are and are not, the futuristic opening riff of "Charge" is coming at you. The guitar work on this album and their arrangement are ahead of their time. There are motifs on here that not heard again for years and some that have never been replicated at all. Dave Wynn is out, replaced by one Robbie Koebler. This guitar duo (including of course long-time guitarist Chuck Lenihan) boldly go where no 6-stringer has gone before. Unlike Megadeth, their powers are used for good and not evil: every sentence on this album is challenging and complex without showing off (like the aforementioned Megadeth are sometimes guilty of).

All of the musical prowess and the ensuing songs are tied together by Chris Notaro's trademark gruff vocals. The gratitude for them is palpable because under the pipes of any other vocalist, this could have been a very different record. If the musicians bring the hard rock, progressive and technical thrash elements to the proceedings, Chris Notaro's contributions firmly retains its NYHC heart.

There's nothing else I can express about this album. It's tempting to compare to "B.O.M.B" to contemporaries, but it is in a league of its own. Sure there were bands mixing it up, but none did it with the expansiveness, fluency or creativity that Crumbsuckers do on "B.O.M.B". Not long after this releases, D.R.I. released "Thrash Zone" and the proverbial jig was up. Crossover thrash soldiered on for a few years with eyebrow-raising raising releases by bands like Rumble Militia and Spudmonsters (Suicidal Tendencies "Lights...Camera...Revolution!" was the last nail) but by '93, even Suicidal Tendencies didn't even want to thrash any more and put out "The Art of Rebellion".

On a theoretical note: it is fun to imagine where Crumbsuckers would've went musically after this release if they had stayed together, whether with this line-up or with new members. The bands they formed after the dissolution of Crumbsuckers (the failed Heavy Rain and the more well-known Pro-Pain) were radically different from each other. But we do have "B.O.M.B" as a crowning jewel of crossover thrash and a fittingly convoluted send-off to a genre that the Crumbsuckers helped along in filling its full potential for combining metal and hardcore with all its offshoots.