Some bands really take themselves and what they do incredibly seriously.
This is of course absolutely fine, if it suits the music & image, Watain for example are a great example.
Some bands don’t and enjoy having a bit of a laugh and then some bands do an album called ‘Shit Into Existence’ and write songs like ‘Die With Titties In Your Face’ and ‘Wrath Of The Anus’
P.T.O.M.A are from Thessaloniki in Greece (Ptoma is Greek for ‘corpse’…… obviously) and this is their recently self released debut album which I’m listening to.
First impressions? Well I had an early heads up from Pete re the artwork and he wasn’t kidding. It’s ‘orrible! Apparently the album title was inspired by the Golgothan in the movie Dogma…. If you’ve seen it you’ll know where they’re coming from.
To be fair I wasn’t expecting much musically…. the sleeve screams ‘two bob brootal death metal’ but I was pleasantly surprised when I pressed play. This is well played old school thrash metal with the odd hardcore element in the vein of New Yorkers Nuclear Assault, S.O.D & German alkies Tankard. Very catchy with Stifo Piperman’s abrasive vocals sounding just like NA’s John Connelly in parts. The, mainly chugging, riffing is excellent and solos very well played with a really fat bass line running through every song from Stavros.
Subject matter varies (thankfully) from…. oh god….. farting a lot (Exhalation Lord)…. To a true story of a WW2 soldier going on a Nazi killing spree armed with just his trusty sword (Mad Jack). P.T.O.M.A. obviously couldn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks of them, which is quite refreshing. They do what they do and are obviously having a great time doing it. Perhaps shamefully, I found myself singing along to the, and I can’t believe I’m about to type this, anthemic…. ‘Die With Titties In Your Face’…. there I did it.
‘Shit Into Existence’ probably won’t be making anyone’s ‘Best Of 2014’ list but it’s a solid, well played & produced debut release these Greek loons can be proud of.
Definitely worth a look for fans of retro thrash.
(7/10 Mark Eve)
https://www.facebook.com/ptomathrash
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