{"id":94379,"date":"2022-07-01T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T23:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=94379"},"modified":"2022-07-15T16:46:08","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T15:46:08","slug":"album-review-municipal-waste-electrified-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-municipal-waste-electrified-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"MUNICIPAL WASTE – Electrified Brain (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MUNICIPAL WASTE
Electrified Brain<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Now somewhat veterans of the whole New Wave Of Thrash Metal scene, this Richmond, Virginia-based crossover cult is back with its seventh full-length outing and an extra layer of grit in the vocal delivery of Tony Foresta (Iron Reagan). However, apart from that it\u2019s still the Municipal Waste you know and want to get drunk with as the combo crashes through a selection of cuts that predictably marry the likes of Vio-lence, Exodus, Anthrax, Forbidden and D.R.I.<\/p>\n

Strangely, I\u2019ve flitted in and out of Municipal Waste\u2019s discography since their inception in 2001, but it was the whole \u201cre-thrash\u201d genre which tended to put me off as so many bands were all too eager to bow at the altar of regurgitation and mimicry. Even so, these guys did provide dollops of nostalgia and after each record always prompted me to watch classic, cheesy 80s horror movies like Street Trash<\/em>, The Stuff<\/em> and Class Of Nuke \u2019Em High<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For me, humour in thrash is something I always took with a pinch of salt having had the 80s and early 90s UK thrash scene forced down my throat only to puke it back up and pick out the bits (and there wasn\u2019t many) that I wanted to chew back on.<\/p>\n

Electrified Brain<\/em> is the same hazardous material from a band that throws the best parties even though you swear each time that you won\u2019t be turning up. The opening title cut features that zany Nuclear Assault-inspired vocal rasp and direction. There\u2019s some effective mosh-pit chugging bolstered by the bass of Land Phil, but as each track greets you like a full beer can to the skull you start to welcome the predictability. It\u2019s drunken crossover thrash, simple as that.<\/p>\n

\u2018Demoralizer\u2019 exhibits some nice fiery lead work and hasty percussion, while the likes of \u2018Last Crawl\u2019, \u2018High Speed Steel\u2019, \u2018Crank The Heat\u2019 and \u2018Restless And Wicked\u2019 all bridge that gap between Nuclear Assault and Slayer<\/a> yet with that Anthrax-cum-D.R.I. level of goofiness dripping with gang chants and drunken skateboarding skids. And so it continues with \u2018Ten Cent Beer Night\u2019, \u2018\u2019Thermonuclear Protection\u2019 and \u2018Paranormal Janitor\u2019.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s comical at times and I do take off my cap to the guys for continuously putting us through the shredder, and the live shows certainly concentrate more on stage diving rather than selfies, but it remains sterile thrash metal that\u2019s been done countless times before and it starts to feel as if we must praise them just because they spearheaded the whole New Wave Of Thrash Metal scene.<\/p>\n

Electrified Brain<\/em> was always going to slice you with its sharpness, speed and crispness, and it was always going to eat your brains like one of those ambling corpses from Return Of The Living Dead<\/em>. I\u2019m not tired of it, I just don\u2019t actually need it, but there\u2019s a whole host of cannibalistic underground dwellers out there who crave this sort of thrashin\u2019 frenzy like it\u2019s the last beer on the planet.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t give you anymore review-wise, and Municipal Waste can\u2019t give you anymore musically, but this new opus remains one big, sweaty and beer-soaked mosh-pit you keep on returning to. Strap in, the rollercoaster is off the rails once again \u2013 Electrified Brain<\/em> is for beastly boys and ghastly girls everywhere.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MUNICIPAL WASTEElectrified Brain Nuclear Blast (2022)Rating: 7.5\/10 Now somewhat veterans of the whole New Wave Of Thrash Metal scene, this Richmond, Virginia-based crossover cult is back with its seventh full-length outing and an extra layer of grit in the vocal delivery of Tony Foresta (Iron Reagan). However, apart from that it\u2019s still the Municipal Waste […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,262],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-municipal-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94380,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94379\/revisions\/94380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}