ALBUM REVIEW: Electrified Brain – Municipal Waste

Let’s be real here, no-one comes to MUNICIPAL WASTE looking for surprises. For over 20 years now, the Virginian crossover kings have stuck well and truly to a singular cause, thrashing their way through the past two decades even as the popularity of their genre of choice has continued to ebb and flow. Naturally then, album number seven – Electrified Brain – is by no means a sharp left turn. It arrives at something of yet another renewed peak for thrash, and of course the band are eager to capitalise.

As if there was any ever doubt that it wouldn’t be, the opening title track quickly proves that Electrified Brain is very much a case of business as usual for MUNICIPAL WASTE. Kicking off with a little electronic buzzing, the band soon come thundering in and we’re away. Blistering riffs, rapid vocal deliveries, a mesmeric solo and a stompy outro – everything you could possibly ask for really. It’s all wrapped up in under three minutes, as indeed are all but one of the 14 tracks here. Next up, Demoralizer throws in some harmonised leads, while Last Crawl encourages listeners to “Embrace the carnage”. It’s all exactly as we expected, but there is definitely something to be said for the power of predictability.

If that opening trifecta welcomes listeners back into MUNICIPAL WASTE’s wonderful world of ‘party thrash’, the rest of the record does everything in its power to keep bodies moving and beers disappearing from start to finish. Clocking in at a sensible 34 minutes, it kind of just tears by with a general raging intensity, but there are a few moments that jump out. Tracks like Grave Dive and Crank The Heat groove particularly hard, while others like High Speed Steel and Blood Vessel – Boat Jail see drummer Dave Witte lead the charge with pummelling double kicks and blistering blast beats respectively.

It all sounds great too, thanks in no small part to producer Arthur Rizk. Having worked on some of modern thrash’s most iconic records from the likes of ENFORCED and the dearly-departed POWER TRIP, Rizk’s involvement makes perfect sense here. He brings just a little more bite and beef to the band’s sound, ensuring that they’ll have absolutely no problems cutting it with their more youthful contemporaries. It means that even as the record’s runtime wears on, its attack never really wears off. Penultimate track Putting On Errors also helps a lot with this; adding in a few absolutely scorching backing vocals, it’s another total rager that sets up album closer Paranormal Janitor for an easy tap-in finish.

Ultimately then, Electrified Brain is a case of no surprises, no problems. Some may disagree, but being predictable really isn’t an issue when a band is this good at what they do. Fast, furious and full of life, it looks like MUNICIPAL WASTE will be hanging onto the baton for a little while yet.

Rating: 8/10

Electrified Brain is set for release on July 1st via Nuclear Blast Records.

Like MUNICIPAL WASTE on Facebook.