Time Signature Pull the trigger...

Genre: thrash metal

The guys may be very young, but they play thrash metal like veterans. The album draws exclusively on classic thrash metal from before the early 90s (with some influences from traditional metal and power metal, too), and the Diamond Plate boys really know their classic thrash metal.

All the tracks on the album are full of conventions from good old thrash metal, and the seasoned thrasher will recognize references to acts like Testament, Megadeth, Metallica, Artillery, Slayer and so on when listening through the album. The riffage is absolutely crushing on this album, falling under the rubric of classic thrash-style riffing and, had this album been released in the 80s, it would definitely have been a thrash metal classic now.

I quite like the guitar solos which are both shreddy and melodic and, it sounds like the band's two guitarists have been studying the style of Kirk Hammett, which results in some tasty and enjoyable, slightly retro, guitar solos.

While the music-side will probably appeal a lot to older thrasher, the vocals might be harder to swallow, as they sound a bit like Kreator-gone-metalcore. The screaming style obviously suits the aggressive music very well, and it might also appeal to younger metal fans, so perhaps it is not all that bad after all.

In any case, this album is a true thrash metal treasure and recommended to all fans of old school trash metal.

Stephen With only 15 years of age when they launched their ferocious EP, 'Mountains of Madness', Diamond Plate was observed by many as the next generation classic thrash successor and eventually landed a deal with Earache to release their full-length debut, 'Generation Why?', in August this year. Many claimed that their sound borrowed heavily from Metallica's early days, and I second that opinion, especially in tracks like 'Pull The Trigger' or 'Casualty of War' where you can hear Hammett's solo style and also Hetfield rhythm pattern.

The old-school crushing riffs and Jon Macak's death-metal-like harsh vocal that wrapped the title track's arrangement is bringing up a huge exclamation mark that Diamond Plate is ready to challenge the veteran. 'Pull The Trigger', with Macak's hellish scream and classic thrash riffs, definitely one of their strongest point here, but if you ask me which one is the best, I'll say check out the sixth track, 'Relativity'. With 6 minutes duration, the song is like a gigantic wave of galloping rhythm, nasty riffs, and a perfect set of headbangable tune. 'Casualty of War' comes second, hats off to Konrad Kupiec, an extremely young axeman with such an exceptional solo delivery.

'Fool's Paradise' is like a B-side of Metallica's black album, 'Waste of Life' walks with a dynamic rhythm, a brilliant verse, but slightly choppy on the chorus, still a great one though. Couple of average tunes and 'At The Mountains of Madness' is brutal but beautiful. Again, the Metallica influence is obvious here. In my opinion, Jon Macak's aggressive vocal added a different flavor to the music, especially if you dig thrash/death style, but to me, probably better if he exploit his normal singing style and combine both.

This teenage thrash attack is surprisingly good. They know how to put out lots of tempo-changing structure to their music, and swarmed with lots of incinerating solos. The song composition are mostly strong though the room for improvement is still vast, I bet they can come up better with next releases. A very talented band, a very good album with at least 85% of score in hand, well done boys!