Dragged

Ground Control could be seen as the unwitting flagship of the recent surge in thrash metal from Italy, despite having a fairly modest output over the past ten years and not really exhibiting a lot of the cliches that came in with many of Punishment 18's other acts. Initially they opted for a more rocking and mainline thrash approach that has more in common with the likes of Anthrax and post-The Ultra-Violence Death Angel, and scored some serious originality points by taking on a fairly prolific power metal vocalist with a fairly flamboyant upper range. Sadly, this interesting experiment only lasted for a single LP and with the passage of four years and a fairly heavy rise in thrash revival acts coming out of the same label and a few others, Ground Control ended up replacing front man and guitarist Alessio Garavello (who had basically left the metal scene altogether by this point) with two new members, each contributing to the noteworthy differences that manifest on Dragged, this band's 2010 follow up to Insanity.

The changes that have taken place over the four years between this album and the last are fairly substantial, though overall the general paradigm is similar. The use of atmospheric breaks with clean and effects-steeped guitar lines is about as equally present, though it accompanies a heavier sound that's a bit more indicative of an early 90s approach rather than late 80s, or a bit less Among The Living and a bit more Persistence Of Time. While this band never put all their emphasis into the speed department, this album is noticeably slower than its predecessor, and the overall feel of things is a tad bit more mechanical, though thankfully only occasionally reminiscent of the mid-90s Pantera influences that tended to influence most of the post-1992 material in the style. The incessant bitching that took place regarding Garavello's vocal approach on the debut has been stylistically redressed here with a grittier persona in Marco Vighini, who is a bit closer to what Mark Osegueda or David White have been doing since the mid-2000s.

As with any other subset of thrash metal, the more restrained, grayer model that is being attempted here is a good one if executed properly, and for the most part things are on point, though far from awe-inspiring. True to form, some of the more ambitious works on here like "Pray And Die" and "Wasted" are quite heavy and take occasions to trade in some speedy sections, but overall they feel a bit slow on the uptake, and not in the effective, gradual manner that occurs on Victims Of Deception. Occasionally some quirky lead drones and repetitive grooves somewhat reminiscent of early Machine Head filter in and out, dragging (no pun intended) what is otherwise a decent attempt. Other songs such as "Final Solution" take more of a consistent mid-paced approach and work a bit better, and in the case of "For What?" they revert back to more of a mainline late 80s approach as heard on Insanity, albeit at mid-tempo with the vocals almost sounding like Klaus Meine. It's kind of a shame that the whole album wasn't approached this way because the vocal approach and the flashy guitar solos still has an 80s flavor to them.

To Ground Control's credit, in spite of adopting a style mostly associated with painfully long albums, they've still elected to keep things short and to the point. When it's on, it's a fairly decent if slightly modernized take on a more mainline mode of thrash metal, but it gets bogged down in groove territory and gets way too repetitive for its own good when it's off. Even if Alessio Garavello had stayed on as lead vocalist, this album would still have been wanting for a lack of a true sense of drive and direction, and the new guy could just have easily had brought his more gravely approach to the previous album and have pulled off, minus the glass shattering extremes here and there. There's a few good songs on here, but this is on the lower side of the quality spectrum of albums put out by Punishment 18, and if there is to be a third LP (it's been about six years), hopefully it will not be a retread of these waters.