Review Summary: Good friendly violent crossover fun in store for all.
Exodus described aptly the aesthetics of being caught in a thrash mosh pit in their all time classic anthem “Toxic Waltz” published in 1989. Good friendly violent fun in store of all. In the case of Municipal Waste this punch line is automatically translated to good friendly violent crossover fun in store for all. Their first three records were the absolute tribute to the crossover genre, as it was coined in the ‘80s where a good number of thrash and hardcore bands were intrigued from "opposite" trends and infused them into their ways. In
Massive Aggressive however, the band aimed for a more mature way of song writing and to the delight of a good portion of metalheads this transition was warmly heralded. However, die hard crossover fans complained about loss of fun and immediacy by one of their favorite bands.
Massive Aggressive was awesome in every possible aspect, however everybody knows that the band’s true game lies in their reckless oscillation between the hardcore and thrash extremes. Their new album
The Fatal Feast is nothing short of the good old Municipal Waste we all come to love and wreck our necks with, but with a fair load of wisdom from previous massive aggressive affairs.
In
The Fatal Feast the crossover wheel is hardly reinvented with respect to the band’s first three records. However, the acquired benefit of maturity from the band’s previous album is more than evident. Municipal Waste use their previously attained wisdom with the sole purpose of optimizing their "standard" crossover line of business. In result, the whole record sounds like one big and homogeneous thrash/hardcore song that lasts for the overall 37 minutes of the record, as the musical diversity that made
Massive Aggressive so distinct in the first place is deliberately absent. The homogeneity of the music is further favored from the flawless sound production, the best the band ever had up to now. Apart from the musical aspect, the band concludes a return to form in terms of its lyrical content. Municipal Waste have dressed their music with some of the most entertaining lyrics (“The Fatal Feast”) they have ever written in their entire career. The lyrical merit of the eponymous song is so powerful that it can single-handedly drive critically acclaimed actor Leslie Nilsen (RIP) to take a temporary leave of absence from heaven and film one of his notorious film parodies, based on all time classic science fiction and splatter/gore films. Holding all aforementioned attributes in mind, the record’s merit is fluctuating only with regard to the kind of sensation every fan group is seeking from its crossover thrash. It is excellent for the band’s future live mayhem, great for domestic listening sessions with fellow crossover diehards under the influence of tons of alcohol and plain good for those who were sold by the unexpected musical diversity of
Massive Aggressive.
In closing, with their new album Municipal Waste make an emphatic return to the ensemble of attributes that made them such a fun to listen crossover act in the first place. As the band's experimentation interval with musical maturity was used to make the new album's music more effective and catchy than in before,
The Fatal Feast registers as a worthy addition in their back catalog.
