Thrash, Kill 'n' Deströy

Experience and common sense have taught me to be wary of bands trying to do something new with genres long past their prime, the Slough Fegs of the world pretty much being the exceptions proving the rule.

So, it was with low expectations (the monumentally silly to the point of seeming parody song titles and the "We're so totally fucking Oldschool Thrash!" image of the band didn't help) I started listening to this Swedish group's debut. Guess what?

Well, this album stars with one of the most misfiring intro tracks I've had the privilege of hearing. And the whole thrashier-than-thou posturing is false advertisement, I'd say... sure, it IS thrash we're dealing with here, but the tone and feel of the album is more grind. Yeah, it doesn't have any blast beats, but the combination of randomly chaotic compositions (as opposed to intricately chaotic, as I understand death metal is supposed to be), relative simplicity of especially the riffs even as its most complexity and general amateurishness strikes that chord in me.

I actually have to cut Immaculate some slack - though there are definite nods to Slayer, Kreator, Anthrax and so on, they put a noticeable effort into at least attempting a distinct sound of their own, complete with the vocalist often breaking out of his usual thrash shouting into a high pitched Rob Halford-style scream - even if the mixing process results in the guitars and drums almost drowning out everything else. That at least makes them better than many other retro bands out there, who just stick to badly imitating one of the masters.

Unfortunately, that might also be the Achilles heel of this band - in trying to be more complex than the punk rock and speed metal of which thrash is a hybrid, the songwriting often stumbles. I mentioned before that the song structures often are chaotic and make no sense, but it rarely quite reaches the frenzied critical mass required to make that approach work. ("Thrashzilla", with a solo that explicitly is supposed to sound like circus music, is probably the song where they succeed the most) Instead, they mostly end up with songs that frustrate the listener in how they mostly wander around aimlessly until a part worth listening to comes along. As a good example of what I'm talking about, take the end of "Leveled to the Ground (By a Steamroller)"... what the flying fuck does that have to do with the rest of the song?

I feel like I'm almost too hard on this album - I mean, it's not as if these guys lack enthusiasm or anything, quite the opposite... and it's my firm belief that the worst crime a music can commit is being lifeless (unless it's Kraftwerk, where that is part of the point), something that definitely does not apply to "Thrash, Kill 'n' Deströy". However, the sad truth is that this album spends most of its running time demonstrating the difference between writing a good riff and writing a good song. The two or three songs here which DO work as coherent wholes, though, leave me hoping that their next album will be an improvement.