Municipal Waste’s “Electrified Brain” Review

A band that’s been around for seemingly 47.3 Thrash Metal Years (more commonly known as the year 2001), but a band that has never really drawn me in. Much like their post-Y2K peers (Havok, Violator, Warbringer, et al)…, I’ve never been quite sold on their “D.R.I + Nuclear Assault alcoholic lovechild” NWOUSTM¹ vibe.

In fact, it was only when I was doing some research where I think I figured out at least some of the Municipal Waste secret sauce: live gigs such as this frenetic 2018 gig in a Sacramento biker club house is where their short powerpukes of thrashy thrash make the most sense:

So with that in the back of my mind, I went into their new album with something approaching cautious optimism.

While doing my research for this review, I did a complete YouTube run through each and every one of the previous Municipal Waste six full-length albums. Honestly, very few of the songs stuck in my head. The band has their very set formulae, including maximizing the chugs-per-minute, keeping the short songs short and very much to the point, few tricks or flourishes…, no hits, no runs, no errors. Many of the same riffs, over and over. Much of the same vox, over and over (and over…). And any guitar solos are fairly few and far between.

But at least here we do have some stand-outs that break out of that rut. With songs like “High Speed Steel”, we have a some lyrical variety. “Demoralizer” and “The Bite” both feature nifty solos. “Blood Vessel / Boat Jail” would have been better off as an instrumental, IMO. “Barreled Rage” channels Nuclear Assault in the same way that “Ten Cent Beer Night” is clearly an Amerikaner channeling of Tankard. “Putting on Errors” sounds like a reverb-less Power Trip outtake. And so on and so forth.

Overall the songs here sound perhaps a tad more “developed”. That might be due to that fact that the songs are just a tad longer than Municipal Waste average per album:

But maybe that might all be putting to fine of a point on things – to try to put finesse to a review of an album from a band that is the antithesis of finesse.

While I have no qualms with this album (or any of their albums, really)…, I’m still not 100% sold on what Municipal Waste brings to the table. In the vacuum of me sitting at home in front of my computer screens and a so-so audio system, maybe the band will never truly win me over. That’s not the venue that the band works in — nor am I sure that they want to work as a “studio band” per se.

Live, I can 100% see me making the effort to check them out. But this album? If you’re a fan, you’ll like this. If you’re not, this might win you over, it might not. Click the social media links and decide for yourself. 🙂

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^{1 New Wave Of US Thrash Metal. And yes, I did just make that up 😉}