Chinese metal - Dying Legion releases



Tractor/Skullcrusher - Sexy Big Butt/Machine Gun split

Tractor - Sexy Big Butt
Based on exhaustive research consisting of watching nude scenes in Chinese kung-fu and action flicks, sexy big butts appear to be a rare and valuable commodity in China, much like high quality manufactured goods designed to last.  Motörhead is the obvious influence here.  That said, I liked the fastest songs--"Flying V Girl" and "Sexy Big Butt" the best for their punkish speed, and they're the least Motörheadish.  The vocals are sometimes strained in the attempt for a more Lemmy-like delivery (sorry, not even close--the vocalist is just too high and accented).

Skullcrusher - Machine Gun
Gruff, heavily accented Engrish vocals here--very reminiscent of Japanese thrash or HC.

• "Death of A.B.L." - "A.B.L." is apparently supposed to be Osama bin Laden.  Fucking killer Hellhammer "Messiah" worshipping main riff!
• "Machine Gun" - They switch to typical faster paced thrash here.  Not bad, but ordinary sounding compared to their first song.
• "Nuclear Threat" - This has the Hellhammerish tone, but takes a more galloping approach.  Reminds me a bit of "Captor of Sin" in some parts.   Vocals switch to oddly-catchy crooning during the chorus. 
• "Die by the Sword" (rehearsal) - Amateurish and killed by the weak vocals. 

Spoiler alert! Skullcrusher are the best band of this entire post, despite atrociously covering one of the greatest metal songs ever.



The Metaphor/Sudden Evil - Evil Rulz as Snake split

The Metaphor - Evil Rulz
The description promised black/thrash.  Uh, sort of...

• "Horror Attack" - Mostly generic black metal.  There are short thrash sections that are underutilized, which are of course the most interesting.
• "Devils in Human-Skin" - Like a lo-fi, dirty version of '90s Slayer with BM vocals.
• "Evil Rulz" - Black metal overall--I guess there's a recurring riff that's pretty thrashy, although not enough to really push it into black/thrash territory.
• "Black Thrash" - After the intro, there's a mid-paced Slayeresque section which then segues into what the songtitle promises.  The speed and ferocity here make it stand out positively compared to their other originals.
• "Darkness Descends" cover (live) - Ambitious choice.  Hard to tell with the so-so sound quality, but it seems like a faithful, well-done rendition.

Sudden Evil - As Snake
Sudden Evil's black/thrash is thrashier and generally more interesting riff-wise than The Metaphor's side.  Depending on the song, the main vocals range between some kind of raspy talk-singing and raspy moaning; although unconventional, I preferred it to the more standard BM secondary vox used a few times.  There are a couple (including right off the bat) unexpected Araya/Schmier high screams, but they're not strong enough to take seriously, and not numerous enough to provide tongue-in-cheek OTTness. 

The "Pleasure to Kill" cover might have bordered on being a passable one-man-band version, but the vocals make it comically awful.  The vox are a lethargic moaning--this guy is an evil Chinese version of Rodney Dunsmore!   When it got to the slow middle section and I heard "I return to the cemetery," I imagined a retarded kid singing Kreator in that gimp semi-whisper and I lost it completely.



The Metaphor - Strike Back
2010 live CD.  Compared to the split, they seem to have dropped the black metal (except for the harsh vocals) and opted for a more streamlined violent thrash sound.  Definitely a wise decision.

Tales of the Unexpected



Farcry - Slaves of Chaos
This was listed simply as "thrash" on a distro clearance list--a very confounding oversimplification that prompted me to give it a try.  Fairly technical, groovy modern thrash with quite a lot of death metal influence at times--some parts sound like they cross into death/thrash (NOT in the classic sense) territory, but not enough where the album as a whole can be classified as such.  Even the more straightforward parts are too uninteresting and modern for a quick thrash fix, and the vocals are an unfortunate forced style evocative of metalcore.  There are some progressive interludes and the bassist does a few jazzy runs, but in this context, they seem less like nice progressive flourishes and more like routine attempts to inject monotony-breakers into the music.

Meatslab - Slaughter of the Human Pig

Here we have a perplexing fundamental disconnect.  The band name, title, and cover artwork heavily suggest gore- or death/grind.  Certainly what I expected.  Not a trace of death metal or grind here.  Internet sites classify them as death/thrash.  Nope.  The band's own hyperbolic, cliché-ridden bio (http://www.meatslab.com/bio.php) paints them as old-school thrash.  Laughable.  They play that awful '90s style of baggy pants and wallet chain groove/"thrash," which sounds dangerously similar to modern metalcore due to the groove sections and ultra-forced vocals.  Imagine a band of individuals with only casual metal knowledge attempting to emulate Chaos A.D. musically and Phil Anselmo vocally, and you get the idea. 





Nefasto - Exterminador
Musically this doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the previous two modern metal turds, but it was quite different from what the plain "thrash" descriptor had me expecting.  About as punkish as thrash can get before not calling it crossover is deceitful.  Main letdown for me is the vocals, which are a gruff HC/crust style.  Not exactly the South American thrash experience I was hoping for, but that's not the band's fault.  Cover reminds me of a mutant commando version of the shyster from the Jew memes.