Claustrofobia "Thrasher" CD
[Destroyer]
Damn, here's some killer death/thrash from São Paulo, Brazil that combines a heavy dose of old school thrash metal influences with a tasteful dose of the more modern thrash sound. The modern elements come mainly in the form of vocals that lean more towards death metal and a few heavier, more groove laden rhythms that have more in common with early Machine Head meets new school death metal than they do thrash. There's a lot of moderately paced tremolo picking, a little bit of melody, some nice dissonance, a great sense of straight up thrash with no frills, and I fucking love the melodic solos. Some of the longer, slower, and more modern sounding tracks aren't that hot (see the less than stellar "Inside Out"), but when these guys take off they really strike gold (check out thrashers like "Condemned"). The production is pretty solid. The mix is clear, the drums sound solid, the guitar tone is heavy without sounding overproduced, etc. I definitely think the bass needs to play a larger role, and the vocals need to drop back in with the music, but other than that it's not bad at all. I might add more crunch to the guitars, but it's no big deal. The layout's not bad. Not great, but not bad. It's consistent, to say the last. The colors and fonts are similar through, as is the imagery, which is a good call. The front cover shows a rather horrifying photograph of a baby being tortured (I assume) in some unusual sort of mechanism... it's really rough to look at. Lyrically this is pretty straightforward thrash that deals with personal issues and generally being pissed off with a few more pointed attacks on political injustice and mankind's self-destructive nature and things like that. "Words from the third world, Fuck your pig's money, Fuck the rat's hypocrisy, Fuck the bureaucrat's ignorance, Fuck the prejudice and distrust." This is good stuff. If they'd get rid of some of the slower chord progressions and focus on writing the shorter, thrashier tracks, they'd probably end up being one of my favorite contemporary thrash bands. There's a lot of potential here. (7/10)
Running time - 29:02, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Condemned, Insane Reality, Words From the Third World]
Claustrofobia - http://www.claustrofobia.cjb.net

This review has been displayed 1637 times.