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Blastmat |
| By
Jonathan Mariante
Blastmat blasted me to the mat! These guys are a turbo charged thrash
metal/hardcore/punk band that rock out like there's no tomorrow, and
their album goes full throttle from beginning to end, thrashing at high
speed all the way! I hear a little bit of everything, from Anthrax to
Fear to the Ramones, in their music. They are very aggressive, singer
Philip Swanson torturing his tonsils and sounding like one pissed off
S.O.B.! Guitarist Andy Reitano blazes across his fret board, and even
manages to throw in a cool solo here and there! Bassist Keith Donaldson
and drummer Ed LaGraize make up a solid, aggressive rhythm section,
pounding it out like a machine gun! These guys really scorch and they
play well, too. They also touch on some political issues, lashing out
in
anger against the government, organized religion, and many injustices
in
the world, with songs like the title track, "New Messiah",
"Desensitized", "Fire In The City", "Church And State", "Taliban Fight
Song", "Jesus Saves", and "It All Comes Down". They even throw in a
cover of the AC/DC classic, "Dog Eat Dog", and do pretty damn good job
with it, too! Some of the songs are kind of short (another nod to the
Ramones here), as is the album, clocking in it only thirty minutes.
However, I've always been a "quality not quantity" kind of person, and
the quality is certainly good here, more than making up for the lack of
quantity. If there ever was a band well suited to write the "theme for
a
dying world", Blastmat is the one!
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