If the recent success of bands like Municipal Waste is any indication, Thrash Metal is back with a vengeance. With everyone from metalheads to Hardcore fans and punks wearing flip-up hats, Thrash Metal isn’t just experiencing a revival: It’s undergoing a renaissance.
That's just one of the reasons why Boston’s Ramming Speed, with their incredible live shows and mind-blowing guitar work, are poised to become the next band scrawled on the denim vests of thrashers all over the world. And given a recent world tour that included shows in Iceland, France and Sweden and festivals in Germany and Eastern Europe, that could become a reality sooner than you think. At the band’s first show in Cincinnati, I couldn’t help but drag my nearly 30-year-old ass into the mosh pit.
These guys have a pretty good sense of humor, too, as illustrated by band shirts with things like “Top of the Dude Chain” and “…And Then We Drank Beer, and It Was AWESOME” emblazoned on the backs. But while their lyrics cover the typical “Party Thrash” like pizza and beer, Ramming Speed is surprisingly politically conscious.
Most bands that play this style limit political statements to hypocritical TV evangelists and Christianity, but Ramming Speed covers issues ranging from xenophobia to the affects of terrorism on Americans’ mindsets and political apathy within the Metal scene. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though, as the band members boast influences ranging from Crust Punk to such politically-charged Grindcore bands as Napalm Death and Terrorizer.
You’d do well to check these guys out now, before you end up having to pay $30 to see them on tour with some well-known band at a larger venue. And considering this show is free, well, what do you have to lose? (Timothy “Treebeard” Adams)
(Get venue details here.)
