UMUR "Strip Tease" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Polish thrash metal/crossover act Acid Drinkers. The album was released through Under One Flag in September 1992. It´s the successor to "Dirty Money, Dirty Tricks" from 1991 and there have been no lineup changes since the predecessor, although drummer Ślimak (real name: Maciej Starosta) appears on "Strip Tease" under his Ślimak monicker instead of the Mangood monicker he used on the first two albums.

Stylistically the material on "Strip Tease" continue the silly/humorous thrash metal/crossover style of the two predecessors. Sometimes it´s funny, but mostly the humour is so primitive and the jokes so ridiculous, that you have to possess a certain type of humour to find it entertaining. Lead vocalist/bassist Titus doesn´t have a particularly interesting voice, and his strong accent sometimes makes it difficult to understand what is being sung. It´s charming for about 3 minutes before it becomes annoying. When that is said Acid Drinkers are othwerwise a very well playing act. They deliver their music with great skill and conviction, and the musicianship is definitely the greatest asset of the album. "Strip Tease" also features a well sounding production job, and it´s a professional sounding release on those parameters.

It´s the songwriting and the oddball humour which sometimes are a bit questionable. The album features 15 tracks and a total playing time of 54:18, which is definitely at least 10 minutes too long. 13 of the tracks are originals, while the remaining two are covers. One is a bizarre acoustic male/female duo cover of "Seek and Destroy" by Metallica and the other is a silly cover of the Monthy Python classic "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". Upon conclusion "Strip Tease" is a bit hard to rate. The musicianship and the production values are of a high quality, but the actual music only occasionally shines. It´s not offensively bad or anything like that, but it´s not really great either. I´ll play nice and give a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating.

UMUR "Dirty Money, Dirty Tricks" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Polish thrash metal/crossover act Acid Drinkers. The album was released through Under One Flag in June 1991, less than a year after the release of the band´s debut full-length studio album "Are You a Rebel?" from September 1990.

Stylistically Acid Drinkers continue the cartoonish and idiosyncratic approach to playing thrash/crossover/heavy metal that they initiated on "Are You a Rebel? (1990)". If you found them entertaining on the debut, chances are you´ll enjoy this sophomore release equally much, and if you didn´t enjoy the debut much, there´s probably no reason to check out "Dirty Money, Dirty Tricks". This is definitely a case of aquired taste. Not completely unlike their German contemporaries in Tankard, although Acid Drinkers are generally less hard edged and musically a bit more eclectic. There is a lot of silliness going on throughout the album, but Acid Drinkers are actually quite a well playing act. The strongly accented vocals by lead vocalist/bassist Tomasz "Titus" Pukacki are occasionally charming, but they can also become a bit too much. Not so much because of the accent, but more because of the over the top silly delivery and even more silly lyrics which are performed. Sometimes it´s funny, but mostly it´s coarse and ridiculous.

"Dirty Money, Dirty Tricks" features 15 tracks and a total playing time of 48:01 minutes, and that is slightly too long for its own good. Although some tracks are entertaining enough, there are several misfires featured on the album, which could well have been weeded out by a more critical producer. Among the misfires are a pretty horrible cover of "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. It´s probably one of the worst choices for a cover song, as it´s almost impossible to do a song like that justice. And not surprisingly Acid Drinkers fall flat on their asses attempting to cover the legendary track.

"Dirty Money, Dirty Tricks" features a well sounding production job, so the quality of the basic elements of the album are relatively high. So I´ll throw out a more subjective rating than usual, because this IMO is simply too silly for its own good. To those who can enjoy the humour "Dirty Money, Dirty Tricks" is probably an enjoyable and entertaining crossover/thrash metal release, but if you´re like me, a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.

Time Signature CoVinyl Part 2

So, when I found a 1990 Under One Flag pressing of this album in near mint condition, I had to buy it simply because of the hilarious cover artwork. The cartoonish front cover and the overly 90s back cover just screamed crossover at me.

Crossover it is, but it leans much more towards metal than towards punk. And it's actually pretty good stuff for the most part. The tracks on this album are musically much better than I expected. They are well-performed and well-composed. At times, some of the melodies sound intentionally silly, while at other times the guitarists almost venture into neo-classical virtuosic territory. Apart from the mock ballad 'Woman With The Dirty Feet' (obviously a jab at pretty much every late 80s glam metal ballad ever), all the songs are fast-paced thrashers with a couple if midtempo songs every now and then. There are a couple of punky elements too such as the chorus of 'I Fuck the Violence (And I'm Sure I'm right)' and this balance works very well.

In terms of musicianship and songwriting as such, this is all good stuff. Everything is super tight, and Litza and Popcorn (WFT?!?) are excellent at what they do for sure. The songs are also well-written and much more care has been taken to make the this sound good than one might expect. Production-wise, the album also sounds very good. The guitars have a slight Acid Reign feel to them, and the overall sound packs quite a punch. The vocals aren't great to be honest; they're not terrible either, but I think they might be grating to some listeners. The vocals are delivered with such a thick accent that, without the lyrics sheet, it's pretty much impossible to understand what the hell the guy is saying. And, you know what, the lyrics sheet doesn't help much because the lyrics are for the most part nonsensical (unintentionally, I think), and it doesn't make things better that half of the lyrics are missing for a couple of the songs. While this will probably annoy some listeners, I find it all a bit charming to be honest.

Overall, this is a fun and interesting listen. If you check it out, I think you'll find that it's much better than you might expect, but you may be taken aback by the odd vocals and the chaotic nightmare that is the lyrics (or you might love it to pieces). Still, overall, this is a very good album and it's definitely worth grabbing a copy of it if you come across one - especially if you like early 90s crossover thrash.

UMUR "Are You a Rebel?" is the debut full-length studio album by Polish thrash metal/crossover act Acid Drinkers. The album was released through Under One Flag in September 1990. Acid Drinkers was founded in 1986, but was put on hold after only a few months of existence as vocalist/bassist Tomasz "Titus" Pukacki was drafted for the Polish army and stayed there two years. After his army service ended, Acid Drinkers was reactivated.

If it wasn´t made abundantly clear from looking at the cartoonish cover artwork, I´ll tell you that Acid Drinkers isn´t the most serious band out there. They play a predominantly fast-paced thrash metal/crossover style featuring some reather silly lyrics and at times also melodies that are close to the ones you´ll find in children´s music. Musically they actually remind me a bit of the thrash metal/crossover equivalent to Macabre (of course without the gory image and extreme vocals). Songtitles like "I Fuck the Violence (I'm Sure I'm Right)", "Moshin' in the Nite", and "Woman With the Dirty Feet" further enhance their silly image. The latter actually sticks out a bit, as it opens with what sounds like a parody on Guns N' Roses, complete with a pretty good Axl Rose imitation.

Other than that track this is fast-paced, energetic, and actually very well played thrash metal/crossover. These guys are definitely not amateurs, and deliver their music with great skill and conviction (great playing rhythm section, and the guitar solos deserve a mention too). The only issue here is the vocals. They feature a very strong accent, which means I have a very hard time decoding what is being said. Other than that the vocal performance is decent although Tomasz "Titus" Pukacki doesn´t have the most interesting or distinct sounding voice.

The sound production is professional, powerful, and detailed. It´s a sound production where you can easily hear what every instrument is playing. Sometimes to the point where it sounds slightly disjointed, but personally I think it sounds great. "Are You a Rebel?" is upon conclusion a bit of a mixed bag. It´s enjoyable to a certain extent, but the songwriting is slightly one-dimensional, and the vocal do drag my rating down a bit too. Therefore a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.