While empires might rise and fall, and musical genres come and go, you get the feeling that thrash metal will always be here. The reason why is quite simple; because it’s the mutt’s nuts! New generations will always be drawn to delights of metal played at lightening speed and when Drunk Thrasher is on the scene, that’s hardly surprising. This is thrash how it’s meant to be played; fast, furious and frenetic, and all these elements combine to create the five-track Raining Vomit, an EP that is so corrosive it should really come with a health warning.
Drunk Thrasher is the pseudonym of Piotr Palej, a one-man army who plays all the instruments on this release, and that gives Raining Vomit a vision that’s tightly focused and honed into a red hot laser beam. Opening track ‘Thrashrust’ is true to the original vision of thrash, this isn’t the squeaky clean variety as played by bands such as Anthrax and Exodus, rather it is gritty and dirty, and has plenty of grime under the fingernails. Musically it exists somewhere between Possessed’s Seven Churches and Slayer’s Hell Awaits (only updated for the new millennium), and captures the moment in time when death metal started to bleed into thrash. This EP manages to combine both; it has deathlike vocals and rampaging, thrashy guitars and the result is a sound that emanates from the depth of Hades.
There’s plenty of variety spread over these five tracks meaning that things never become staid. Subsequently the all out attack of ‘Raining Vomit’ sits next to the groove laden (and wonderfully blasphemous) ‘Masturbation On The Tomb’, yet despite their sonic differences they sit well together and that’s thanks to Drunken Thrasher’s singular vision. The vocals are (rather self-depreciatingly) described as “vomits”, but in truth they are about so much more, and the Thrasher proves himself a versatile vocalist, with his performance on ‘Drunk Thrashers Attack’ being particularly spellbinding as he veers between guttural growls and satanic shrieks, all of which makes for a rewarding listen.
At just 15 minutes, Raining Vomit is a fairly brief listen, and one which takes the listener on a dark journey, but truth be told, Drunk Thrasher has crammed more into this quarter of an hour than most bands pack into a whole career. I hope Piotr Palej finds a way to make this one-man project three-dimensional, because these songs would undoubtedly slay in the live environment, but until then, it is Raining Vomit.
- Raining Vomit is released by Godz Ov War Productions and is available now.
Track List:
- Thrashrust
- Raining Vomit
- Masturbation On The Tomb
- The Poisoning
- Drunk Thrashers Attack
