BRAINWASHED - WRECKED

Well, whaddya know? Old school thrash is alive and kicking, so it's over to Poland to party like it's 1989 with Brainwashed, a band who play what they play with confidence and conviction. This is a band back after a lengthy hiatus; I don't know the circumstances of this break, but the band have not released anything for a massive seven years (at least according to the usually-reliable Metal Archives). Whether they've still been playing live during that time I don't know, but certainly, with the release of the full-length album Wrecked (2011) they seem like a band happy to be back.

This is a nine-track album coming in at around the fifty-minute mark, and one of the things I noticed about it was its good balance between longer and shorter tracks. Saying that, there's no let-up here at all throughout the album. Longer tracks may be more slightly more adventurous in terms of their structure, but the momentum is never broken. Short, punchy opener Bringing Out Of Dead sets this scene and leads seamlessly into I, Leader, a longer track which boasts some lovely and clear bass lines together with some excellent drum work from Kacper Misztal. Wrecked and Beast Within Me plough through into the longest track, Give Me Your Blood, which has space to develop some interesting harmonies and vocal work to accompany the driving guitars. I found myself tapping my foot to all the tracks on the album, right through to Last Breaths, which really seals the deal.

The important thing to note is, to get the maximum out of this album you'd have to be a fan of the 'no let up' style that Brainwashed employ. In other words, this is one for people who like the fact that there are bands out there who love trad thrash so much, that they're just continuing with it; ignoring the stuff which has come since the heyday of thrash metal in the eighties and early nineties, not nodding to other genres, not developing the sound in a new area, just hammering out tunes they enjoy playing. Brainwashed are having fun, with a real sense of their thrash roots, right down to what they sing about as much as how they play (i.e. excess, corruption and politics are the order of the day here) and the cover art wouldn't look out of place next to your Exodus and Testament LPs, were this not a digital album obviously! If that sounds like your thing and if you're glad that younger bands are taking up that sound, then you can download 'Wrecked' for absolutely nothing at their Bandcamp page.

But, whatever your tastes in metal run to, know that this is a strong and worthwhile album with good production values throughout. Welcome back, Brainwashed, and let's hope you can keep this new momentum going.

KERI O'SHEA

http://brainwashedthrash.bandcamp.com/