Massdistraction - Follow The Rats

Massdistraction

Follow The Rats

by Lior "Steinmetal" Stein at 11 February 2013, 3:57 PM

Indulging on gorging on the crumbs of the rotting society, there is the vast army of rats, endlessly breeding, forging their massive strike with terrible disease, swarming the earth in order to leave to reminiscent of mankind's filth. Maybe the rat is the symbol of what has been ingesting and festering upon the breaking down spinal cord of our very own survival as normal people or it might signify the fall of everything that has been trivial. Quite good intentions when it comes to education or plain shocking the lights out but not too much, but I gather that the Swedish MASSDISTRACTION knew exactly on what to focus on. After I had the chance of checking out their earlier demo, "Succubus", that revealed the band's rather diverse interest in Thrash Metal, mixing old school with the genre's new foundation and entrust in modernized versions of Hardcore and Death Metal, the band moved on and linked a deal with Mighty Music for the release of "Follow The Rats", their debut release that consists of afresh recordings of nearly the entire "Succubus" tracklist along with new tunes of roasting ruggedness.

"Follow The Rats", in comparison to the former demo release, somewhat illuminated the latter's efforts with the new recordings of the older songs. Aside from the nicely done production that seemed rather common for this kind of Thrash, merely the mixture of two guards, MASSDISTRACTION appeared to be more determined to break the cliché's of nowadays Thrash while editing its manner with several modern enactments. When it comes to the songs, the direction of the music, though rather diverse within the genre's borders and close proximities, is pretty much steady even with what seemed to be articulations of the several passages, a few drum rolls (some gone bad due to what appeared to be lack of synchronization with the bass or plain errors what made me think of a drum machine), and a limited selection of harmonic licks, crossbreed riffing and narrow vocal patterns from clean to low guttural growls (even though sometimes a bit anemic). I can still argue as earlier that MASSDISTRACTION are rather techy, but not in such a way that I would acknowledge any genius composition or incredible song writing. For one thing, these guys can Thrash and hard, they do tend to repeat themselves, in particular the semi galloping riffage that just won't seem to tire within their songs with the same sequences (it might sound Thrash but there is a limit to how much a Thrasher can take).

Furthermore, the new additions to the album, other than those of "Succubus", such as "Master Manipulator", "Diluted" and "Walking The Earth" presented MASSDISTRACTION as more or less and evolved act. It is true that the band has a few issues when it comes to coming up with ample soloing, creative melodic licks and diverse rhythm guitar riffs, but at least for this debut effort they made a few improvements and also showcases a great sound pattern, a combination of early and new formulated Thrash Metal. "Follow The Rats" has its good moments where I found the promise I was looking for in this band two years ago. Fans of EXODUS, TESTAMENT, SLAYER but also KREATOR and DESTRUCTION would want to have a piece of the action, but nonetheless, I suggest this one for every Metalhead.