28 August 2021

WAKE UP SCREAMING



From the two riff simplicity of the opening track "Escape The Mind," there's no doubt which direction this tape is going - full throttle, ramshackle and wildly catchy when they want to be. The bass is super farty, the mix is all over the place, the vocals can't keep up with the music half of the time and the backing vocals are almost always slightly off, the rack tom fills leading into the chorus of "Polluted Atmosphere" are almost comical, the guitars have that inimitable clean/destroyed tone that gets mostly buried by the rhythms section but the solo in "Insane Brain" earns full legend status. In other words -  this unknown UK thrash screamer from 1985 sounds real. And it's intense as fucking hell. Ten studio tracks, with five live tunes (yeah - they're rough...but you could have figured that) and four more recorded at rehearsal (in case you thought the live recording wasn't quite rough enough) and a "Paranoid" cover that makes no sense whatsoever. You're welcome. 



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