Thrashing Like a Maniac Review
Earache Records Release Compilation of New Thrash Metal Bands
Earache Records announced "Thrash is Back!" when they released albums by thrash metal bands Municipal Waste, Evile, and SSS this past summer.
The UK music press listened, with features claiming the return of thrash in magazines such as Kerrang! and Metal Hammer. Even the NME, a magazine not usually associated with metal, ran a story using Earache’s “Thrash is Back!” slogan as the headline in their 21 July 2007 issue.
Old School Thrash
Thrash first came to prominence during the 1980s when bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth, combined the New Wave of British Heavy Metal sound with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk. It hit its commercial peak during the latter half of the 80s, with multitudes of thrash metal bands being signed up by major record labels, before being knocked out of the media spotlight by the Seattle-based grunge scene and having death metal take over as king of the metal underground.
Thrash metal bands like Overkill, Sodom, and Kreator, soldiered on throughout the 1990s and continued releasing albums, but a majority of their thrash contemporaries either broke up or abandoned their thrash roots.
Since the end of the 1990s, a number of the classic old school thrash metal bands have reformed and some, including Exodus, Destruction, Death Angel, and Onslaught, have even gone on to record and release new albums.
Along with the ever present and reunited old school thrash bands, there has been a sharp rise in the number of new thrash metal bands forming over the past couple of years as a new generation of teenagers discover thrash metal.
New School Thrash
Thrashing Like A Maniac is a new compilation containing, according to the cover, “16 Ripping Cuts of New School Thrash”.
With the rise in the number of new thrash bands forming, burgeoning thrash scenes have developed in California and the United Kingdom. This is evident on Thrashing Like A Maniac, with over half of the bands originating from one of these 2 areas.
California is represented by Bonded By Blood, who were signed to Earache Records last September, Dekapitator, Fueled By Fire, Warbringer, and Merciless Death, while the UK provides the compilation with Evile, SSS, Deadfall, Mutant, and Send More Paramedics. Either of these two scenes have enough new thrash bands to easily fill its own compilation, as Resilience Records proved last year with the UK thrash compilation Bangers and Thrash.
The thrash resurgence is not limited to these two scenes, however, as witnessed by the inclusion of Virginia’s Municipal Waste, Wisconsin’s Lazurus , and Tampa's one-man thrash monster Toxic Holocaust rounding out the American bands, and Ireland’s Gama Bomb, who are recording their Earache debut and are set to appear at the Thrash Assault 2 Fetival, Brazil's Violator, and female fronted Swedish thrashers Decadence representing the rest of the world. The Japanese release of Thrashing Like A Maniac replaces Decadence with Greek thrashers Crucifier.
Compiler, and Earache founder and Managing Director, Digby Pearson has done an excellent job of picking bands that not only remain true to the original spirit of old school thrash, but kick some serious butt as well.
Thrashing Like a Maniac is recommended to any fans of old school thrash wanting to check out some of the new bands, or fans of one or two of the bands included that want to hear more of the new breed of thrashers.
Thrashing Like A Maniac is out now on Earache Records in Europe and on February 5th in the USA and is available on CD and limited edition black (800 copies), and orange (200 copies), vinyl.
