T(h)rash of the Orient

It's an admirable idea that Syrian thrashers Slumpark Correctional try not to pigeonhole themselves as "Oriental metal". That Arabicness is used only as a light touch to add some distinction. Sadly, they kind of need more distinction. What's left is some rather underdeveloped thrash.

At their best moments, they really do a fine job straddling the line between inventively musical and utterly chaotic. "Borderline" and "Opposition" both drop out the traditional (i.e. rooted in Western heavy metal patterns) guitar solo. They replace it with trade-offs between withering barrages of all-out ferocity, and brief passages of that warbling, almost improvised type of Arabic guitar playing. "Ground Incursion" also stands out for having a bouncy punk-influenced riffing style, although the song also stands out for negative reasons which I'll outline below.

Verse riffs are nothing to write home about; but the simple choruses are underlined with more neat Middle Eastern guitar flourishes. (And I do mean simple choruses - just the title repeated four to six times.) "Opposition", and even the two weaker songs "The Sniper" and "Ground Incursion" showcase this East-meets-West guitar sound quite well. The instrumental "Foresee" expands it into a whole song for itself, which offers a welcome respite from the rest of the brutality.

The major flop here is the vocals, both in terms of what is said and how it's delivered. Take for example this gem from "The Sniper": "Wake up – a pile of hay. Scratch your reddening backside." Okay, classify that as a little misadventure. Then there's "Whatcha gonna do, you little shit now?" from the closing song. I'm dead serious. It's in there. I don't recoil at profanity, but when the whole EP's sung in a tough guy in-yer-face yell, well I can't help relegating it to the goon pile instead of taking it as honest anger at social injustice.

Thrash of the Orient could have been a worthwhile experiment. Slumpark Correctional would do well to drop some of the attitude - though not the musical extremity. Then, put more effort into the verse melodies; and hire either a tune-conscious clean singer or a full-on death growling one. Keep the Arab styling along with the occasional foray into pummeling ferocity. The rest needs some work.