Maniac

I didn't buy "Maniac"; one of the members gave it to me after a show. I'm glad I didn't. One could easily be conned into buying this album with the band being inappropriately titled as "thrash", expecting to hear a band that is taking part in the new wave of thrash bands that are becoming so popular. What you're basically left with is some incredibly generic and boring WEAK melodic/core/thrash abomination that should be burned from the annals of existence. This is Martyrd

The first thing that stuck out for me, that instantly made me have great dislike for the band is the vocals. From what I recall of thrash, they're supposed to be aggressive, rebellious almost shouting vocals that are meant to intimidate the listener, and generally having the sound of being pissed off. Martyrd vocals remind me of some kind of hybrid of Corey Taylor of Slipknot and later day James Hetfield vocals. The vocals are so bad that they pretty much ruin the music for me, not that there is much musicianship to be heard, something I will address in due time. At certain points in the album, the singer will belt out a high pitched shriek similar to Rob Halford. I don't know where they came from, because at no point in the album would something like that be relevant. It seems as though they just put it into the mix so it might appeal to some Judas Priest fans or something. Though I must admit he does a very good impression, considering the singing capabilities he has shown on the album (ha.) And of course, on the more "aggressive" songs of the album (here's a hint, there aren't any) he tries to do some real thrash vocals, but he ends up falling short of this goal at great length and you can plainly see that he is trying too hard. WEAK.

Now on to the musicianship: The music pretty much accompanies the vocals. There are no such redeeming qualities in the musicianship here, everything is the same boring generic lame-ass riffs that repeat themselves constantly, not that they were anything cutting edge or exciting to begin with. Thrash metal is supposed to be an in-your-face assault of heavy fast-paced riffing; this is more like if the Jonas brothers tried their hand at thrash. The music sounds like it has a big -core influence in it. I didn't think there was anything more boring than the riffs, but then I heard the solos. The solos were so boring and uninspired that you might as well just skip over them, that's just how annoyingly boring they were. It occurred to me that they just put the solos in to take up time in the album. Other than the painfully boring guitars, nothing else really sticks out on this. Drums are pretty standard and neutral. Not much personality or diversity can be heard. And the bass is essentially inaudible except for the song Casualties, which I guess would be considered the "highlight" of the album. This is the closest thing to real thrash as this album is going to get. You can actually hear some aggressive riffing on this song, the singer tries his hardest not to sound whiny, and there's even a nifty bass solo! But, there's an awful ballad on this which negates this song, so it was all done in vain.

I doubt this band will make it anywhere. Don't even bother checking them out. They're THAT worthless of a band. Entirely forgettable album by an entirely forgettable band. Gets 10% for having a Rob Halford scream.