J-Man Red White and Blood is the debut album from Generation Kill, a new supergroup featuring members of Exodus, M.O.D., Mortician, and many more. On this album, the listener will experience eleven tracks of fury-inducing crossover thrash metal that should greatly appeal to fans of the genre. Red White and Blood is a downright fun listen that has enough solid riffs to satisfy any fan of thrash metal or hardcore. This may not be a terribly unique or memorable effort, but it definitely satisfies my craving for groove-infested crossover pretty damn well.

Even though this is first and foremost a crossover-thrash album, Red White and Blood also features some traits that aren't necessarily representative of the genre like acoustic guitar portions, groove-metal riffs, and melodic leads. Generation Kill sticks to their guns on this album, but it's also diverse enough to remain interesting throughout the entire duration. I also find the humor-injected lyrics to be pretty interesting; while still dealing with very serious subject matter, Generation Kill manages to refrain from sounding 'too' serious by adding some funny lines every now and again.

As expected from a group of this caliber, the production and musicianship on Red White and Blood are both flawless. I can't say this is an album I'll be popping in too often in the future, but the quality is very high across the board and 3 - 3.5 stars are the least I can give. If you like crossover thrash with some outside influences, this should be an album worth your investment.

Time Signature Feast for the crossover-heads...

Genre: Crossover

Crossover is the unlikely, but unavoidable, bastard child of hardcore punk and thrash metal and, at its best it captures the sheer energy of hardcore punk and the aggression and focus on musicianship from thrash metal and balances them perfectly. And this is pretty much what Generation Kill do on their debut album.

After a slightly Middle-Eastern oriented acoustic guitar intro, 'Hate' kicks off with a straight in-yer-face hardcore riff and bombards you with raw energy. Soon thrash metal elements are infused into the track which also contains a heavy coda. This pretty much sets the tone of the entire album, some of the tracks, such as 'Hate', 'Red, White and Blood', and 'Depraved Indifference' being more oriented towards hardcore punk, while tracks like 'Feast for Wolves', 'Walking Dead' and 'Let Me Die' are more leaning towards thrash metal.

While the subject matter of the album appears to be a serious one (with plenty of references to killing and destruction), Generation Kill are not above injecting a dose of humor, which is reflected in, for instance, the title track, which appears to be a satirical critique of certain aspects of aggressive US foreign policy - complete with references to Inuit vaginas and a twisted guitar lead rendering of the American national anthem. This sort of humorous approach is not unusual to crossover metal and is inherited from both hardcore and thrash metal.

So "Red, White and Blue" is full of typical crossover elements, but Generation Kill also reach out beyond the boundaries of thrash metal and hardcore in the direction of alternative rock and sludge rock - as in the chorus of 'Feast for the Wolves', all of 'Self Medicating' and the groovy Southern metal inspired semi-doomy 'Slow Burn' (which has a nice surprise for you towards the end). 'Dark Ways' and 'Section 8' are quieter tunes, the latter even being a bit creepy, and NIN fans can look forward to a bonus track cover version of 'Wish'.

While more modern in sound and drawing on groovy metal, Generation Kill's debut album should appeal to fans of hardcore, thrash and crossover, and sludgeheads who like more uptempo music might find it appealing, too.