Ramming Speed

Brainwreck

Written by: EW on 27/07/2009 17:49:07

The thrash party continues, unabated it seems despite the growing disillusionment in the 'scene' of people becoming tired of the non-stop rehashing of 80's ideas, and 80's thrash greatness. Here we have Ramming Speed, residents of Boston, US of A, and their fun-filled attempt at thrash on debut album "Brainwreck".

Now if you hear "Brainwreck" and think it's another term concocted that those cheeky chappies Municipal Waste ("bangover" anyone?) you could be forgiven for your mistake. If after listening to said album you still think it's Municipal Waste, well, you could again be forgiven your mistake. And herein lies the problem - despite a number of listens I'm still not getting any genuine excitement from "Brainwreck". It's lowest common denominator thrash. It's all been done before. Yes if you see one of their band pics Ramming Speed clearly aren't a Megadeth when it comes to taking their thrashing seriously, but with a production as dead as the brain cells after a night partying with the 'Speed guys it's really rather difficult to think at the albums conclusion it was worth 29 minutes of your time when you could've been listening to erm, Municipal Waste, just to pick any band at random.

With 13 songs coming at you in actually 27 minutes (there's 2 minutes of silence at the end before a few seconds of random gibberish) there is little time for technicalities - Ramming Speed have thrashing to do. The punky vibe that permeates this dominion of thrash is clearly there, with songs like "Speed Trials" and "Man vs. Machine" sitting on a brew consisting of around 75% Waste and 25% Discharge. Hmm, lovely. Pete Gallagher tops of the songs with vocals that range from the odd moment of growling, the odd moment of James Hetfield (see the start of "All In All") and more often than not, bog standard hoarse thrash monologue that won't really get anyone in a mad state of excitement listening.

On the evidence of "Brainwreck", Ramming Speed are a B- or C-league new-old-thrash band that won't last the inevitable cull in 1, 2, 3... years (delete as appropriate) without a vast improvement in every department. I'll be interested to see how they move on from here.

4

Download: Sound The Alarm, Man vs Machine
For The Fans Of: Municipal Waste, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Thrash
Listen: Myspace

Release date: 03.08.09
Candlelight Records

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