Toxic Trash

Anyone outside of former Czechoslovakia ever heard of this one before Australian collector of Czech Steel, Andrew Buntine put it on his blog some years ago? I sure as hell hadn't so there's some credit where credit is due. We're talking about a true top-5 Czech* rarity here and weather it's one for the Czech-fanatics only or for all fans of sick'n'brutal Thrash is what we're gonna try to figure out here..

To me the band name and sleeve concept remind me more of the kind of US Thrash/crossover w/ an up-to-date environmental pathos a la Nuclear Assault than anything particularly Dark or Evil. I love NA so I'm not gonna use the word 'luckily' but just state that, oh Yes, despite the misrepresenting sleeve there is Darkness and Evil here aplenty! Opener "Nádherný Dážď" sets the pace with classic Evil Czech Thrash a la Debustrol, V.A.R. and similiars found on cult comps like Death Metal Session and Ultra-Metal. The doomy "Perzeus" follows with the kind of stale, ultra-generic proto-Death riffing that only really worked for the olde Czech bands - think demo-era Root for reference. The pure early-Sodom-worship of "Čarodejníkov Plášť" also deserves a heads-up and makes me believe fans of Yugo's Heller should also be able to take this album to heart.

*flip*

Gotta love a title like "Corpse Death", don't you? It's indeed a classy mix of the mid/doomy and the fast/sick, but it's the militant, fast chug intro to the following "Presda" that's probably my fave part of the album. First there's the guitar, then there's a second guitar, then comes the drums and then, there's the bass. So simple, yet so genious. The title of fave entire song goes however to the closing "Thrash Mánia" - a European Speed Metal archetype like Iron Angel or Destruction used to hammer them out in their prime.

Other than that there aren't an awful lot of exceptionally noteworthy things going on here to be honest. There's your Kreator-speed, your Necronomicon-filth, your Messiah-sick, your Celtic Frost-dark, all shaken not stirred in a Czech bottle of pivo and it has taken me quite a few spins to really get into the album and beyond the initial impression of its lack of originality, but to answer the question that started this review: Yes, anyone who considers themselves a Brutal Thrash fan should at least give this album a try. I'd be surprised if we didn't see it reissued on a kulty re-ish label within the next few years...

* = Yeah, I know they were from Slovakia, but I use the term "Czech" here merely as a short form of Czechoslovakia, which was still 'a thing' in 1991..