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Injury: Unleash the violence

29/11/11 || revenant

2011 has been quite a year for debut thrash releases. I should be well satisfied with the three top notch releases from Essence, Hellbringer and Armor Column, sated enough with those releases to not bother with another thrash release from 2011. But I want more. Yes call me greedy, but if there’s a chance for another great thrash debut in 2011, I want to know about it. Am I pushing the odds to much? Could there really be a fourth top notch thrash debut this year? And, of all things, could it come from Italy? Fuck it, let’s roll the dice and see how Injury comes out.

Injury. Strange moniker. Say it aloud. Injury. Feels like something’s missing. It’s incomplete. It definitely needs another word in there, like Brain Injury or Critical Injury even (or, if they were Greek, they could try for Rectal Injury). Then again, we are talking about and Italian band here, remember how good they are at creating monikers? Perhaps we should be glad they stayed with a one word moniker. A longer moniker could come out as “Dead of Injury” or “Injury of Brain” or something equally retarded. Injury. No, it still sounds incomplete to me.

Injury’s sound isn’t exactly ground breaking. It’s fast. Vocals are gruff shouts. There’s occasional gang vocals. There’s bucketloads of aggression. The production is incredibly modern and slick, with booming guitars (which can be a positive or negative, depending on your preference). There are plenty of chugging riffs. In other words, it sounds like pretty much any other modern thrash release.

At first listen, this album sounds the same the whole way through. The vocals are the same whether it’s verse or chorus. The guy has zero range beyond his one style. The first time I listened to the opening track I was surprised when the gang vocals kicked in because I didn’t realise the song had entered the chorus section. The other aspect of the music that makes this album sound so samey is the riffs: they all sound so god damned similar. There’s way to much chugging going on here. Add to that the way too subtle tempo shifts, lack of any melody or slower groove and it’s not hard to understand why at first listen this album sounds like the same song repeated over and over.

It’s really only after three or four listens do you start to differentiate one song from another, though the samey aspect to their music does remain. And this, essentially, is the problem with this album. While the better songs here are absolutely fantastic (“Ignorance”, “Busy Killing” and the epic “Fear of Nothing”), the weaker tracks tend to sound way too generic. The lack of melody or groove makes the album less catchy than it could have been. The lead breaks, while well delivered, have the same rhythm backing and the song doesn’t feel like it’s changed any.

I wouldn’t say this isn’t a bad debut album by any respect, it’s just one that lacks variety. Injury are still in the “lets play fast and aggressive and heavy” stage, and yet haven’t matured to deliver upon their talents. When Injury expands upon their primal roots, drives more variety into their sound via melody or groove, or even just riffs which rely less heavily on the same chugging formula, then they’ll be Italy’s answer to the thrash revival. Until then, I’ll refer to them as a work in progress.

6,5

Information
Released: 2011
Label: Punishment 18 Records
Website: Injury MySpace
Band
Sauro: vocals
Artiö: guitars
Paul: guitars
Mibbe: bass
Jankill: drums

Tracklist
01. Ignorance
02. The Execution
03. Busy Killing
04. Violence Unleashed
05. Messiah of the Undone
06. Food for Voltures
07. Death Routine
08. Fear of Nothing
09. Denying My Soul

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