This is a sweet idea for a compilation: 19 bands covering a slew of classic thrash tunes on one handy disc - all the proceeds of which will be donated to human (i.e. animal friendly) cancer research. Kicking things off is barcode (Denmark) with "Peace Sells". Fucking incredible! Megadeth gone metalcore, and god damn do they do it right... the perfect mix of staying true to the original while giving it their own twist. This is a killer opener, and they've got a solid recording too. Germany's I Defy takes on "Take This Torch" by Razor, and man, they do another great job... you'd never really guess that they're a hardcore band, they even kick out some badass thrash styled vocals. Descent and Unite (both from England) pull off decent covers of rather generic choices - Testament's "Into the Pit" and Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" respectively - that aren't as exciting as the opening tracks, but I must give Unite credit for throwing down a tight and brutal performance with a great sense of melody (granted the recording could be more beneficial to their technique). Then it's Croatians (yep, you heard me) D.B.N. with a fun lovin' take on Tankard's "Empty Tankard". Another English band, Exit Wound, kicks out another Megadeth cover ("Hook in Mouth") and does a good job... they throw in some simplistic moshy grooves, but be not confused, because they fucking ace the lead parts flawlessly! Then it's December with "Seemingly Endless Time" by Death Angel, a choice that surprised (but impressed) me... sadly their recording is really flimsy and they don't really do the song justice because the vocalist tries to sing it the way Mark Osegueda did, and he falters too much. It just doesn't sound natural. A valiant effort, though. Ireland's Carnun Rising basically massacre Slayer's "South of Heaven" with painfully out of synch dual guitar harmonies and a lot of choppy rhythm playing in general. The death metal growls don't exactly help, but the performance flaws are the real problem. Assert (England) drops a raging cover of "Ace of Spades", and I swear, you could almost fool me into believing that they had Lemmy come in to do guest vocals for 'em! In my opinion Mot?rhead is far from thrash, but what the hell, the song rips. Phallicide has their way with Annihilator's "W.T.Y.D.", but I'm not all that into it, probably because I've never been big on Annihilator. It's okay, just nothing that great. The same goes for Spain's Ownfight and their version of Celtic Frost's "Into the Crypt of the Rays", though I like their song a bit more and they have a fuller sound working in their favor. Ted Maul (England) have one of the worst band names I've ever heard, and their recording isn't that great either... in fact, I'm just not thrilled with Overkill's "Thanx for Nothin'" when it's coming from Ted Maul. What can I say? Ghoul is up next with their version of Megadeth's "Skull Beneath the Skin", from their full-length CD on Razorback Records. I Adapt (Iceland) do "New Song" by Nuclear Assault, but the recording is horrendous... which is a crying shame, because not only is it a great song in its original form, but I Adapt is a damn good band, and I would have liked to hear this track under more suitable recording conditions. Greece's Straight Hate does "Black Magic", and thankfully they also do more justice to Slayer than Carnun Rising did - with a black metal twist. The vocals are mixed too loud (Can you say abrasive?), but it's alright. Scotland's Co-Exist does a six-minute medley of Overkill tracks (a very cool idea) before Argento (Wales) drops a dirty little Repulsion track: "Black Breath". Inside Conflict (France) covers "The American Way" by Sacred Reich and definitely gives it a far more brutal (and unrecognizable) spin. Stampin' Ground then closes things out with a fucking sweet cover of "Calling in the Coroner" by Vio-fucking-lence, baby. Good stuff. And god damn, the layout on this thing is incredible. First of all, I can't believe they got Ed Repka, the king of metal record covers, to do the art for this thing... holy shit, it's awesome. He's still got it, and this thing totally looks like it came out in the late-80's as a result. Fucking insane. Inside the booklet things are packed with information, including a tiny photo and some contact information for every band on the compilation (Thank you!) and liner notes from Blackfish label head/Stampin' Ground member Ian Glasper, Tony Scaglione (Whiplash), and Jim Durkin (Dark Angel) - the latter two of whom look back on the old days of thrash. Then under the CD are some badass old flyers for bands like The Accused, Exciter, Death Angel, Sacred Reich, Nuclear Assault, Kreator, Testament, Slayer, etc. Sweet. And did I mention that fucking Ed Repka did the incredible cover art!? My chief complaint with this otherwise awesome compilation is the bands represented. I mean, why are there two Slayer songs, two Overkill appearances, and three Megadeth songs? Come on! No Anthrax!? No Exodus!? There are so many other bands out there that should have been represented. I just think that there should have been a stipulation that no one could cover the same band as someone else, but in the label's defense, they do dictate in the liner notes that there are so many bands that they would have liked to see represented here that weren't. Originally this was going to be a double CD, so damn you to all of the bands who wimped out and didn't come through! But really, there aren't any particularly bad songs here, just some unfortunate production issues, etc. that don't really affect the complete listen a great deal. This is a really good collection of international bands, and I'd love to see a "...Volume 2" at some point. Good work, Blackfish.
[Blackfish]
Running time - 69:37, Tracks: 19
[Notable tracks: Barcode, I Defy, Exit Wound, Assert, Ghoul, Inside Conflict, Stampin' Ground]
Blackfish Records - http://www.blackfishrecords.com
