Kerrang! Magazine was our staple. My mate used to get it on the way to school pretty much every Wednesday and we’d read it at break time (I seem to recall in the late 80s it was fortnightly, but can’t remember exactly, that might have been Raw?)
We loved reading the reviews. We read them every week for years, through college and when we started work.
I wish I could remember who wrote this, but I can’t, in the mid-1990s, Black Crowes released a single called “Kickin’ My Heart Around” and the review said: “it manages to sound exactly like what you imagine a Black Crowes song called “Kickin’ My Heart Around” was going to sound like.
I think of that line often when I review stuff these days. I’ve never used it.
Until now.
Because, basically, if you know Municipal Waste, then trust me, you know what “The Last Rager” is going to sound like.
And credit to them. Because most thrash isn’t even thrash anymore. This is. It thrashes like a bastard. It’s ten minutes of beer-filled (fuelled?) fury, with its hi-tops on and in the moshpit.
In short, it’s all Municipal Waste have ever been.
I think it was Metal Hammer who first alerted me to this, lord knows how long ago. An attempt at a New Wave, which essentially amounted to MW and Warbringer and a load of rubbish, both of those bands, though have stuck to their principles.
And in the case of Tony Foresta who has piloted this lot through whatever, that is basically, that a “Wave Of Death” is fun. That’s also the first “song” here. It’s not really a song, it’s just a maelstrom. It is fun, though.
“Car Nivore (Street Meat)” is more of a conventional thing. It has melody. It goes at a 1000mph and still Foresta yells “more speed”. It also has a breakdown, just so it can recharge.
“Rum For Your Life” grooves, but it’s drunken, and its pleased with that, and Dave Witte beats the shit out of his drums like they owe him money, or because he wants to, who knows? And the two guitarists, Ryan Waste and Nick Poulos screech in a way people don’t anymore.
The last one of this blink and you’ll miss it, thing is the title track. Which asks the plaintive question: “Can you survive the night?” as its first line and gets more violent from there.
These four tracks is what Municipal Waste do. Loud, brutal, pissed up, and supremely well done. They don’t, they really don’t write them like this anymore. Unless “they” are Municipal Waste.
With a bit of luck, they’ll never change.
Rating 8/10
