Funerot - Invasion From The Death Dimension   

Thrash/crossover fans listen up

The thrash renaissance just won't lie down and die. That is something that I and many others are grateful for. Along side some of the reformed greats such as Exodus and Death Angel and the newer school such as The Haunted, we have seen a recent burst of thrash/crossover bands appear on the scene such as Municipal Waste and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder. Being an old school thrash fan, this is music to my ears pardon the pun. Enter Washington (Shoreline) quartet Funerot who are guitarist/vocalist Daniel Munro and guitarist Ben Moore-Maley, drummer Reuben Storey and bassist Max Gore-man and their debut release Invasion From The Death Dimension.

It takes some 40 seconds of sound effects before the opening cut, titled The Interceptor, kicks off with an almost blues like feel that gives absolutely no indication of what is to come - a barrage of thrash induced riffs and speed that instantly throws back to the genre's hey day. The non-stop Mandroid, the thrash groove laden The Man With The Megaton Mind and short no nonsense Death Or Die continue the thrash/crossover trend with Munro's vocals at times taking on a slight Tom Araya (Slayer) edge which is never a bad thing as far as thrash fans are concerned. In 1989, Mucky Pup brought us Death By Cholesterol and now in 2006, it's Death By Draino (thanks to Funerot) - a full on speed blast for the most part with a couple of well placed slower passages to change things up nicely before the 90 second acoustic guitar interlude piece Radioactivation gives the album a bit of breathing space

The sample based lead up to the album's 50s/60s horror moving sounding title track, Invaders From The Death Dimension, quickly becomes an assault of classic thrash that runs rampant throughout the rest of the track and continues with the frantic guitar picking throughout Phase Zero: Morbivision and the chugging feel of Exterminate The Macrohumanoid that kicks in at the 44 second mark. Cranking out a few well placed gang vocals is the short and slow paced 1-900-DTH-LINE that blasts into a brief mosh inducing pace towards the end unlike Tyrranosaur which generally maintains a flat out pace from beginning to end. The album comes to a close through a slower, instrumental closer titled Aftermath which has more of a jam session kinda feel to it.

In the metal world which is currently dominated by whatever “core” trend you can think of, it's refreshing to see something different come along. Although Funerot's Invasion From The Death Dimension might not have quite the musical strength and label backing of the likes of recent releases by Municipal Waste and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, it's no less relevant than their modern day peers in today's current whatever-core scene. More importantly, this album is fun to listen to and there's plenty of thrash/crossover contained within that will leave fans of the genre wanting more.

(Razorback Records)

Added: March 19th 2006
Reviewer: Simon Milburn
Score:
Related Link: Official Website
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