Review Summary: Suide Watch unleash a trebly "pure" thrash core assault that is all blitzkrieging, amphetamoid G-tar riffage that charges out of your bucking speakers with the dizzying velocity of a bungee jump, and brings to mind the spunky, thrash-chug of Excel's magni
During the halcyon days of 1980’s metal/crossover, an eager rivet head would gleefully fawn over his vinyl with covetous pride as many of the profoundly lurid graphics would be as eye-wateringly abrasive as the splenetic music within, and the glorious artwork of the much venerated Ed Repka was as ubiquitous in thrash metal as the iron-flanked, heavy breasted, copper-toned Amazons in Boris Vallejo fantasy epics, so I found myself in the midst of an adolescent flush of excitement when I beheld the vibrant, apocalyptic, Ed Repka art that adorns the Suicide Watch debut album, quite, quite wonderful and ALL GONZOID METAL! So is this disc all mouth and no pantaloons? fortunately both gob and pant are in rude health as these retrograde thrash-core hellhounds deliver a suitably bellicose, metallithrash, aural assault that not only does justice to the supremely apropos art but sends the listener down a gloriously vertiginous time tunnel where one arrives bruised and battered in the mid 80's where Shades records in London stocked the latest vinyl releases by thrash overlords such as Whiplash, Destruction, Tankard, Artillery, Nuclear Assault, etc next to the nascent crossover genre, where the likes of The Crumsuckers, Excel, Ludichrist, D.R.I, Uncle Slam, Suicidal Tendencies, The Accused fused the adrenalized technicality of thrash metal with the more aggro, politico awareness of hardcore...and Suicide Watch are prime, albeit anachronistic examples of said genre, that Suicide Watch have an ability to discharge omnipotent thrash buzz-bombs with the best of 'em is redoubtable as the band's clear love of thrash-core translates into something profoundly more exciting than masturbatory fan boy expertise. They eschew the current vogue for low-geared G-tars, harmonic squeal-athos, sluggish breakdowns and successfully generate a frantic, trebly "pure" thrash core assault that is all blitzkrieging, amphetamoid G-tar riffage that charges out of your bucking speakers with the dizzying velocity of a bungee jump, and brings to mind the spunky, thrash-chug of Excel's magnificent 'Split Image' album, and ones inability to remain prone while listening to ‘Global Warning’ is ample proof that this fine album should appeal to far more metallians than merely aging thrash junkies such as myself.
Suicide Watch are at their locomotive, thrashgodz best during the barnstorming title track, 'Global Warning' which contains the gloriously anarco chant of "*** the Police, *** the Government..." and then segues into the most compulsive G-tar mosh down I've heard since Scott Ian’s, bludgeoning, Rhinosaur grooves in 'Caught in a Mosh' crippled a generation’s worth of neck bones...PHEW!!!! It was at this point that my fingers happily drifted from the keyboard and grasped my phantom, shark fin Jackson G-tar and I proceeded to pound my head with such mania that should my neighbour have spied me through the curtains it would have appeared that I was in the midst of a murderous fit! While the success of ‘Global Warning' is down to the cohesion of all the talented musicians involved, the star of the show is Simon's G-tar skillz as his liquid fingers have clearly absorbed all the bravura pyrotechnics of his thrashing mentors as he coaxes some truly exhilarating and incendiary riffage out of his white-hot axe, HUZZAH! Production is crisp, effective, organic, unfussy, and a real moshzilla. Go buy!
