Some time around 2007 you couldn’t go anywhere without some dude wearing a Municipal Waste shirt thinking he/she looked cool and sporting the latest in fashion metal as the band was everywhere, adorning front covers of mags and getting rave reviews for their outrageous live shows. For some reason I always gave myself a wry smirk when I thought about where were you before they got into some major mag. The band had played the UK in 2004 as support, yes support, at Bradford’s 1 in 12 club for a hardcore all dayer I attended. Good friendly violent fun is all I have to say about the matter as I type with that wry smirk on my aging face. Anyway enough nostalgia and gloating, I have followed MW for a long time now since the release of the debut “Waste ‘Em All” in 2003 and though the band has been around since 2001 infamy eluded them until they released “Hazardous Mutation” in 2005 and were picked up by Earache. If there is always one thing that MW has done its stick to their trademark crossover thrash style and never ever to waver from it no matter whether metalcore, deathcore, groove or whatever else seems to be en vogue in the popularity stakes in metal. The Waste has always championed the roots of their music in prime 80s thrash and hardcore as “The Fatal Feast” is yet another homage to both thrash and hardcore. I’m not particularly keen on the term crossover as it always makes me think of D.R.I. releasing “Crossover” to which I felt totally betrayed yet most thrashers thought was a revelation, at the time anyway.
Album number five from MW sees the band moving mosh pits to Nuclear Blast after what I felt was the slightly disappointing “Massive Aggressive”. New label, fresh start. The album starts with a short sci-fi synth piece which launches into “Repossession” a full on face melting riff assault. The bands trademark speed riff break is here in full air guitar glory. “New Dead Masters” has S.O.D. stamped all over it’s mosh riff before some hyper riffing carnage interrupts the bouncy pace. The hardcore influenced “Unholy Abductor” is maniacally fast with breakneck riffing and here comes a small moan, not about MW but fans of this band who never seem to check out where this band actually gets its influences from despite Ryan, Land Phil and Tony constantly spouting what MW is all about. Quite appropriately the next tune is “Idiot Check” and a return to moshing violence is heard but the solo is damn tuneful for a change.
A sample starts about some poor dude wanting a beer but bar is closed as its after orders and is nicely called “Covered In Sick – The Barfer” a chugging moshing, headbanging, fistbanging, I wonder how many more of these silly metaphors I could add here, stageslamming, riff monster of a song. Personally I prefer it when MW hit the hardcore fast lane like on “Standards And Practices” which has gang chant vocal lines and a very macho chest beating ethos. One thing that I like about this album is the deluge of riffs the band has wrote and sank into each tune with such fluidity such as on “Crushing Chest Wound”, which sounds like a good stagedive or wall of death tune. A slow start followed by a savage breakneck riff, absolute bliss to me. As the album approaches its end the title track pops up and again an introduction is used before a rampaging bass line is added followed by yet another ball busting riff. The song chops around a bit and is by far the most varied on the album. Every single song on this album has some unique riff to it and whether it’s the hardcore anarchy you prefer or pure speed thrash this album really is a welcome return to form from Municipal Waste, and even if you think they didn’t lose form this new one sees the band upping the ante considerably from the last album.
8.5/10 (Martin Harris)
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