90%
Ramming Speed—Brainwreck (2008)
Details
Recorded onto 2 inch tape by Jordan Levantini (with assistance from Nick Wolf) at New Alliance. It was then dumped into Protools before being dumped back onto tape for mastering by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East. Released on Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records in 2008.
Band
- Pete “Za” Gallagher—Vocals
- Kallen “Lock ’em up” Bliss—Guitars
- Ricky “Ta Speed” Zampa—Guitars
- Derek “The Bass Player” Cloonan—Bass
- Jonah “The Laser Storm” Livingston—Drums
Tracks
- Speed trials
- The threat…
- Lazer assault
- All in all
- Shane Embury is the Brad Pitt of grindcore
- Bogus facade
- Sound the alarm
- Immigrant song
- Political party
- Man vs machine
- Arrested development
- A modern myth
- Heavy metal thunder
Review
From the moment I listened to the first track I knew that I’d like this album. To be honest, I had a sneaking suspicion before that when I read through the lyrics printed on the inside of the CD packaging. This is a band with both a sense of humour and a political opinion.
I first noticed the song “Immigrant song” and wondered if it was a cover of the Led Zeppelin classic. It’s not. But it’s brilliant: a commentary on how badly migrants are treated. It ends with “We’re so fickle with the arguments we choose / Many of our ancestors faced hardships when they arrived / So let our new immigrant amigos just live their lives”. Well said!
Something I noticed too when typing out the band members’ names. How upset must Derek Cloonan be to get such an unimaginative nickname?! We Pete “Za” Gallagher on vocals, Kallen “Lock ’em up” Bliss and Ricky “Ta Speed” Zampa on guitars, and Jonah “The Laser Storm” Livingston on drums. How on earth then did Derek Cloonan only get given the nickname “The Bass Player”? That’s about as creative as when Jason Newsted joined Voivod and inherited the moniker Jasonic.
Conclusion
This debut album from US thrash / crossover merchants Ramming Speed is really rather good. It has a very old school thrash/punk feel to it. Think Evile meets early Suicidal Tendencies.
This album will definitely be on my playlist throughout 2016.
Review score: 90%