I was reading the press release for this album and I misread a line, so I thought that they were saying this was a “blistering anal assault”.And these guys are from Greece, so there's that.It lead to a few seconds of befuddlement and then I realized that I couldn't have read that right.I looked at it again and what it actually said was “blistering aural assault”.Which makes a lot more sense and reduced my level of consternation considerably.The last thing I need is music that is going to cause blistering in my nether regions.
These guys play thrash, more of the European variety, (think Sodom or Kreator) with some well placed touches of death metal.And they play it very well.Special mention goes out to their lead guitar player.The guy has chops for days and makes some very ripping and technical solos sound effortless, which is always the sign of a dude who can shred.
Biotoxic Warfare are one of those bands that doesn't really bring a new spin on thrash to the table, they are just a very solid band and they do what they do very well.This is typical thrash, by which I mean that if you don't like the riff they are playing at the moment, just wait about 30 seconds and they'll send another one your way.It doesn't sound like they are just throwing riffs together for the hell of it, though.All of it sounds as though they put some thought and effort into making the rapidly changing ideas flow into one another and work as songs.They don't mess around either.From the moment you push play things are off and running and it isn't until you hit the fifth track that things allow you a little bit of a breather.Not much though; there's maybe 45 seconds of acoustic intro to that song and then we're off and blasting again.The pedal stays down to the floor for the remainder of the album.So if you want to be thrashing like a maniac from start to finish, this one will work for you.
This is the debut full length for this band and there is a lot of promise here.This is a band that is probably not ever going to make it big enough that they will grace the shores of the US with their presence, so unless you make the trek to Europe during festival season you may never see them live.Which is too bad, because I bet they put on a good show.For now, though, dig this album and hope it gets enough attention that they can at least keep releasing more music.There are not a lot of good things about the digital age and what it means for music, but one of the good things is that its a lot easier to find and hear music like this.Sometimes you have to wade through a lot of mediocre stuff to find the gems like this one.When you hear a debut like this, it makes all the rest worthwhile.Here's to hoping that Biotoxic Warfare keep fighting the thrash fight and bringing us solid releases like this one.
- ODIN