Review by Sonny for Wargasm (USA) - Why Play Around? (1988)

My initial take was that this is a great example of underground 80s thrash metal that deserves to be held up as an equal to contempories like Testament and Exodus. The opening couple of tracks are pretty good thrashers, with Revenge having a truly memorable chorus to rival anything around at the time (despite the track dragging on a little bit too long) and both tracks having decent riffs,  In fact, I would suggest that the whole album is all about the riffs as singer Bob Mayo has a nice rasping delivery, but is restricted in range and the lead guitar work is too understated, almost to the point of non-existence bar a couple of notable exceptions (Revenge again being one such). It even seems a couple of times like a solo is coming, but then one never materialises and they just keep playing the riff over and over. And therein lies the problem - when an album is primarily about the riffs they need to be absolutely top-knotch and those on Why Play Around? aren't really that, never accelerating much beyond mid-pace and never leaping out and grabbing you by the throat. So my initial rose-tinted view was soon dispelled because, basically, that is all there is to the album. This is especially problematic when taken in context, with a plethora of death/thrash hybrids abounding in the underground at this time and starting to break out into the wider metal world, when these kind of plodding riffs just weren't cutting the mustard anymore and it's easy to see why Wargasm got left behind.

Ultimately Why Play Around? doesn't really offer enough to hold the attention over repeated listens, although for a quick punching-the-air headbanging workout it is fine. Throw in a couple of redundant interludes that add absolutely nothing and we are on a downward spiral really. Essentially this is nothing more than a footnote in thrash metal history for good reason and if any of the tracks other than Revenge popped up on the monthly playlist then I doubt they would raise much of an eyebrow from me.