St. Patrick’s Day has just passed us by and it looks like Irish thrashers Visceral Attack were celebrating the way they do best on the emerald isle; by drinking, and just to prove it they threw in a Heineken label with this CD (No bottle attached, so at least I cannot be accused of accepting bribes!).
Well the first thing I noticed from this CD was the cover; a rather colourful painting of an evil leprechaun giving us the horns, standing in front of a house with the letters ‘VA’ graffiti’d on the wall. This is one that will look nice in any thrashers collection sat next to the likes of Exodus’ ‘Good friendly violent fun’ and Acid Reign’s ‘The Fear’. This has true thrash spirit written all over it, and instantly makes me want to slip the disc out of its case and find out it the music lives up to expectations.
With an average age of 17, these young thrashers may look as though they only just discovered Metallica after stumbling across dads dusty old vinyl collection, but proving that looks/age can be dangerously deceptive; these thrashers lay down a 5 pronged thrash attack and this isn’t the workings of a band that’s here to muck about. Speed is ultimately the name of the game here as the drummer lays down a fast paced rhythm that the guitars have no problems keeping up with as they forge a series of heavy, adrenalin pumping riffs that race on full speed ahead, such as on ‘Craving the flesh’ which hardly stops to catch a breath. This track flows seamlessly into ‘Visceral Attack’ which is an invigoratingly aggressive bruiser that contains the in-your-face attitude of Municipal Waste, bring to mind ‘Terror Shark’. You can literally smell the beer and sweat as a circle pit forms in the mind! A superfluity of solos sits firmly in the mix throughout that have Exodus written all over them. The vocalist has a certain Tom Araya vibe going on in his rushed lyrical delivery while mixing it up with the raw Tankard sound without sounding like he is trying to mimic his style, and for the majority of the record makes sense although in one or two places there is a slight feeling that he struggles to keep the rhythm.
Visceral Attack make no secret of the fact that they’ve been influenced by fellow Irishmen Gama Bomb, and these have the same kind of aggression and visceral energy mixed up with a dollop of fun and a genuine passion for the music that gives it such appeal. Good stuff!
http://www.myspace.com/visceralattack
