Municipal Waste - Electrified Brain (2022)^{Release ID: 38176}

I've not spent much time with Municipal Waste over the years, as I'm generally not a fan of crossover thrash. That said, I thought I'd give this album a try when I saw it has a thrash metal primary. I have no regrets! In fact, there's more traditional thrash metal than crossover thrash on Electrified Brain, and I've discovered much more to my liking than I would have expected. After being quite negative about recent thrash metal releases (Destruction, Kreator, Deathhammer etc.), it's so damn refreshing to hear so many great riffs on offer. The moment that second track Demoralizer pumped out of my speakers, I knew that my love of the genre was finally getting an invigorating kick up the ass! There are plenty more highlights too, with Last Crawl, Grave Dive, High Speed Steel, Thermonuclear Protection and Restless and Wicked all scratching an inch that had been increasing in intensity over the past 6 months.

So why only 3.5 stars? Well, while the pure thrash metal moments are consistently entertaining, there are a number of aspects on the album that are just a little bit challenging for me. There are a heap of gang vocals, which I've never been a fan of, and the second half of the album in particular has a few sub-two minute skater thrash tracks that don't really work for me. I'll certainly take the good with the bad though and, if nothing else, this album has reminded me why I belong to The Pit. Perhaps there could be great modern thrash metal release waiting for me around the corner?

2022 RANKING (54 releases so far)

31. Moonlight Sorcery - Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity - 3.5 stars

32. Municipal Waste - Electrified Brain - 3.5 stars

33. Konvent - Call Down the Sun - 3.5 stars

2022 THRASH RANKING (10 releases so far)

2. Nocturnal Graves - An Outlaw's Stand - 3.5 stars

3. Municipal Waste - Electrified Brain - 3.5 stars

4. Dream Widow - Dream Widow - 3.5 stars