Kev Rowland It is hard to believe that Municipal Waste have been around for more than 20 years now, and they keep producing crossover thrash metal as if it is a lot earlier than that. Just seeing the name of the band makes me smile as I know what is likely to be on offer, and that is exactly what we have here again. Four of the guys have been playing together since 2004, while Ryan Waste and Tony Foresta have been there since the very beginning and even “new boy” Nick Poulos has been there six years and played on the last album, 2017’s ‘Slime and Punishment’. They had started work on this when the pandemic broke, which impacted a band who live on the road, but it meant they could concentrate fully on this as there was no tour to get back to, and the result is something which in many ways is their most complete offering to date.

It may only be 34 minutes long, but the 14 tracks pack a great deal in, in that time. It comes in, kicks hard, and then is gone again. As Tony says, ““We’re not writing any love ballads to sell records, we’re just doing what we’ve always done since the band started—and that’s try to write fun, fast, and ripping hardcorepunkmetal.” With this band what you see is what you get, a party band who are out to have a blast and take their listeners along for the ride. True, it can be somewhat one-dimensional, but overall, this is a fun album, with songs like “The Bite” showing there really are some diamonds here to be uncovered. If you miss the days when old school thrash when music like this was everywhere, then be confident that unlike many bands, Municipal Waste have stuck to their core and are still delivering like they always have.