Vio-Lence - Nothing to Gain (1993)^{Release ID: 2884}

So after three albums where doing the same thing over and over again began to pan out less and less, Bay Area thrashers Vio+Lence seemed to have decided that change was for the better.  Except, they obviously didn't know how to change.  It's a real shame, considering that they had so much potential.  This third and final studio album takes a more radio-friendly approach to the compositions, which probably means they were looking for money.  But in this effort to produce something the alt-rock fans would like, they made a fatal mistake: see, when Metallica sold out, they didn't pretend The Black Album was a thrash album.  These guys still tried to pass of thrash as a heavily-radio genre without really thinking about what that meant.  They simply just nerfed the heaviness and assumed the genre would fill in the blank.  They barely bothered to compose, just to thrash.  Not really creativity there.  As well, what's the singer doing trying to actually sing without more practice first?  I mean, these guys have never been the best, but in their efforts to become even more relevant, they ended up at their personal worst.  The production is shotty, the vocals are bad, the heaviness is a knockoff of the knockoff second album, and it all gets in the way of the identity of the band.  Even if they had the right to try something new, this is not how one should go about trying new things.

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