Municipal Waste - Electrified Brain Review

By the great deal of postings Municipal Waste are certainly a very dear band for this page. Interestingly, no review has been written about their albums. This is going to be the first. This new album is a lobg awaited for the Metal community especially those ones who love the good old classic Thrash Metal from the Bay Area. Make no mistake Municipal Waste are real representatives of the Bay Area. Their ferocious and gnarly music tells the best side of it. I confess that most of the time the band reminded a lot Nuclear Assault – a mandatory band my dear fan if you don’t know it yet -, one of the pioneers of the so-called Crossover with Hardcore and Metal music. One of the most thirsty for blood band I’ve ever heard in my life. Album opener and tittle track “Electrified Brain” and third track “Last Crawl” have the stronger taste of them all. The same acid and corrosive guitar riffings with an almost spoken vocals. By the way, the guitars and their syncopated riffing are a hhghlight of the album. It’s very hard not to appreciate them. As many early Thrash Metal bands there is certain taste of Speed Metal in the guitar riffings as “High Speed Steel” tells the fan. The emotional oh-oh-oh choruses got me by the guts.

“Electrified Brain” is for the ones who like speed. All tracks are short and straight ahead following Hardcore tradition of writing songs. The spice added is the muscular and corrosive guitars. The album’s got 14 tracks a very unusual number of tracks for these days. All of them with very interesting and catchy guitar riffings. It seems like they grab the fan by the skin and corrode until the bones. “Thermonuclear Protection” follows exactly this path leaving nothing behind. The album sometimes sounds as machine gun when tracks like “Crank the Heat” are playing. Its frentic cadence makes the fan headbang at large. There’s no way of being put with it. I can even see the mosh pits forming. Thrash Metal can be predictable but it’s always such a pleasure to listen to a band as Municipal Waste and their thristy for blood. “Restless and Wicked” follows the exact same path with a strong and catchy chorus. Ouch, my neck! I’m too old for that. You know what? Let’s go for it.

It’s everyday we receive Thrash Metal bands here but when we do that’s the effect. Especially if they are so good as Municipal Waste a band that is able to have in the same album fast and furious riffings and sophisticated musicianship. Take a good look at “Barreled Rage” and tell me what you think, my dear fan. Municipal Waste are here to prove there is no room for conformity in Metal music.

Municipal Waste “Electrified Brain” will be released on July 01st via Nuclear Blast Records.

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