Sometimes with these supergroup things its best to pretend you don't know who they are and try to decide if the music has its own legs. Just to be fair to the music which after all you hope is why these things come about, yeah?
Well one thing here is clear from the first few chords is that this is a classy bit of thrash/hardcore crossover. A real slice of ' back in the day' when punks were first letting a little metal joy into their lives and vice versa. I mean I guess there is a lot of it about these days with the thrash resurgence but this, despite that crossover touch, also has a nice modern veneer to it. Good, chunky tricked out riffs pound the metal before spewing the crossover time changes and a splatter of lead work over some very tightly played hard thrashing songs. So no problem with the pedigree of musicianship then.
The second thing that leaps out at you here (and blats you across the head with a gift wrapped baseball bat before running away giggling) are the vocals. They are frankly just brilliant. Gleefully maniacal cackles, sly squeals and gibbering gargles scamper across the album like a hyperactive gremlin and add so much colour it really is impossible even for a sourpuss like me not to grin and want to bounce around like Tigger (not a pretty sight).
And I guess that's the key here. Even without any conventional hooks this is so bloody infectious. There is so much going on in every one of these eight songs its usually only moments of bemusement before something comes along to drag you into the pit. Check out the great leads on Stuck pig / Bleeding Out or the cracking intro on Fiend Without A Face and it's sinister melody, the sub gang vocals on closer Hell Asylum, every twist and insane warning of my personal fave After Party Massacre, or the mad, sinister bass line led interlude Dunsmoor. Neither individual tracks nor the album as a whole outstays its welcome; just chugs your beer, entertains you and leaves before the hangover hits.
This is the party you didn't want to go to but got dragged along to anyway and you ended up dancing like a loon all night at.
So a party thrown by various members of Massacre, DRI and the Accused? I'm in!
http://www.myspace.com/denialfiendband
Gizmo
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