Time Signature Welcome back to the wasteland...

Genre: "crustover" thrash

Last year, in the middle of a pandemic wreaking havoc on the world, Children of Technology released their third album "Written Destiny". Their entire spiel has always been a road warrior-like post-apocalyptic concept, so I guess the timing couldn't be better.

The album is a short sharp shock featuring eight tracks, the song lengths falling between 2:41 and 5:39. In other words, they are not too long and not too short, and that's just perfect for Children of Technology's crust-punk infused style of crossover thrash metal. Pretty much all of the tracks are fast-paced and combine thrash-style fast picking with punky chord ripping, and this works really well, I think. Whether deliberate or not, there are even some elements on this album that are reminiscent of very early thrash metal along the lines of "Kill 'Em All" (think 'Motorbreath', 'Whiplash' or 'Phantom Lord'). Fans of old school punk and hardcore style breakdowns will also enjoy this album as there are plenty of those (but none of that metalcore breakdown stuff that was so popular a couple of years ago).

Energetic and aggressive, the compositions are not chaotic though but come across as rather meticulously structured. The production is not really lo-fi either, meaning that fans of more tech and polished thrash metal might find this album to be a gateway into the dirtier and punkier subworld of the genre. The vocals are more like a mix of yells and screams than singing or growling, and the lead guitars range from archetypical thrash metal histrionics to being quite melodic at time, which is nice.

Fans of dirty crossover thrash and hardcore punk (and Mad Max!) should find this album very enjoyable.