VILLAINIZER — Reign in Terror (review)

VILLAINIZER — Reign in Terror album cover Album · 2013 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
voila_la_scorie
Rob Abinader (a.k.a. RAV) loved eighties thrash metal and Man-O-War. Rob was also Arab Canadian. Throughout the 2000's he kept hearing much hatred against Arabs thanks to people's responses to the terrorist attacks perpetrated by fundamentalist Muslims. It was tough on him to be indirectly villainized by the villainization of all Arabs by a lot of western people. So, he hit upon the idea to parody this stereotype of Arabic people in a thrash metal band.

His nickname was expanded to Rob "the Arab Villain" as he said to his friend, "If I'm an Arab, then I too must be a villain." At first, it was just him and Sam "The Jewish Villain" Levitt recording in Rob's bedroom, with lead guitar contributions from fellow Edmontonian, John Saturley (The Order of Chaos). But by the second album, Villainizer had become a full band.

Villainizer play traditional thrash metal with lyrics typically being about terrorism from the view of the terrorists. There's a very strong tongue-in-cheek attitude to the lyrics as Rob's intention is to parody the western view of the Arab terrorist rather than parody terrorism itself.

The music is thrash-blazing fast in the vein of early Metallica, Exodus, and other California bands. For fans of the early days of thrash metal, the music is spot on! But the lyrics and song titles are what make Villainizer stand out.

"Turbanator", for example, is a song about the Terminator movie story theme but altered a little.

"Turbanate! / Turbanator (our time has finally come) / Face eradication / Targeted for turbanation / Now you know the time has come to..."

"Twin Tower Two-Step" - "Get your friends to stand tall and straight / Then knock 'em to the floor with a headbutt to the face / Speak broken English with a towel on your head / and mosh to Villainizer as if up from the dead"

The album wraps up with a parody of "Reign in Blood" that's been titled "Raining Bombs" (which also influenced the choice of cover art). Then there are three songs dedicated to a love for metal music ("I Wanna Play Metal All Night" no doubt a play on the KISS song "I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night"). Then two more parody covers: "Metal Depression" based on The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Manic Depression" and "Jihad" parodying Metallica's "Whiplash".

"The aeroplanes start to fly / We'll crash them all around / Acting like a terrorist / Jihad!

For entertainment value, this album is pretty darn good. The lyrics are often very violent as many thrash lyrics are, but knowing the background of the band's theme, there is an ironic twist of dark humour.

Sadly, Rob destroyed all unsold Villainizer CDs when he dissolved the band in 2015, but all three albums with bonus tracks from the singles and EPs can be purchased as a download from Bandcamp for $7.
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