My Own Mess - Away From The Light - [Self-released]

2007-07-05

Most thrash metal being done today be young bands isn’t the kind of thrash they used to do in the 80's. The thrash today is mostly what's being referred to as Neo-thrash; heavier, faster, with The Haunted being the foremost example. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this EP by this young Netherlands group, which owes much more to classic thrash than to the current version of it.

The EP starts out with a short instrumental piece called "The Field" based on some melodic twin guitar work; it doesn’t take long for it to evolve into the aggressive and very oldschool "Leave Me Be", some solid thrash riffs, strong rhythm section, and a groove-filled vocal approach - quite aggressive and raw in character.

It’s mostly the same afterwards, with some tracks, such as "Thrash Attack" featuring some even more aggressive bits. In any case, it works almost all of the time. A few things that also deserve an extra mark are the tight sound, with a drum and guitar sound that just carries this through, and a good sense of riff using, every song has at least one memorable riff to spare.

The cover artwork isn’t going to get this EP sold, though the Parental Advisory sticker saying "Extreme Fucking Thrash Metal" is a nice touch, these guys need a real "80's cover" to really represent what they're doing. Which is good, in any case.

Alon Miasnikov