Tension at the Seams

Extrema are considered an important band in Italy and at the beginning of their career they played a good old style thrash, never extreme but so influenced by groups like D.R.I., Acrophet and so on. With the worldwide Pantera success, lots of bands started to copy their style all over the world creating what would have been called nu-metal some years after. Well, Extrema belong to these bands.

“Tension At The Seams” was recorded in 1993, in pure Pantera era and some riffs, always being thrash, are inevitable in their style. The true thrash survives only in few songs, or better in some moments. The opener “Join Hands” is quite fast but with some funky influences in the bass parts. The refrain is good and the vocals are very similar to those of Phil Anselmo. The mid paced riff during this song is quite progressive and the solo is fast, very good.

Even the production is in Pantera style, especially the drums sound while the guitars are not so heavy, even if they are still thrash in the distortion. “Child O’ Boogaow” mixes some fast parts to mid paced riffs; but you cannot consider TRUE thrash those mid paced riffs… “Displaced” song is quite good in its main riff even if features some funky parts and the sung part in pure Anselmo style.

The Police cover is well done, quite fast without losing anything in the original melody. “Modern Times” is in my opinion the highlight here, or better, the song I like the most: it’s quite gloomy and surely with more groove, sometimes very catchy. “Double face” is quite pure thrash even not being a complete up tempo while, in the other songs, there isn’t too much to say, except for the very good, thrash oriented “And the Rage Awaits” and the fast “Life”.

Well, this is not an album that can change your life but it contains some good songs, always groovy and some in pure Pantera style but they are not bad, absolutely. If you're searching for some good, pure thrash stay away or listen to their first EP if you can find it.