Sometimes you just need to let loose and go old-school. But you’ve heard all the old-school stuff before. So you need new old-school. Or retro-school. Is that a term? It is now. Or how about retro-thrash? Whichever, this is the territory ably inhabited by Argentinian thrashers Bastardös. No translation of the name needed.
Bastardös is their 2015/2017 (depends which source you read) album and it’s a cracking ten tracks of old-fashioned, tinny, echoey thrash. It sounds like it was recorded on a budget, but so was Bestial Devastation with which it shares many stylings. OK, so Sepultura’s release was in Portuguese and this is in Spanish, but beyond that there’s a lot of similarity – the most important part of which is the sheer breakneck violence of the damn thing.
Almost every vocal outburst is backed by a shredding guitar lick for emphasis. Those vocals have noticeable echo on them. The sound is treble-licious so you get the harsh effect of each distorted note, but that doesn’t distract from the thunder of the bass and the drums.
I can’t really comment on the lyrical content, but I’d assume that titles like “Apocalipsis Thrash”, “Horror Celestial” and “La Masacre” pretty much mean what I’d guess they do. They sound destructive and they’re backed by a soundtrack which is every bit as devastating. If you know the track “Crucificados Pelo Sistema” in its cover incarnation (rather than the more punk original by Ratos de Porão) and liked it, then this is an album of similar sounding grass roots thrash metal.
Highly recommended for burning off the stress of a bad week at work.
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