Andrew’s Judgmental Album Reviews: Municipal Waste – Electrified Brain (2022)

As we all know by now, my preferred genre of choice is metal. And ya know, it’s been like a month since I reviewed a metal album…so I’m getting the itch. Through the magical mystery tour that is the internet, I stumbled across Municipal Waste. They are basically frat party kegger thrash. They remind me a bit of 80s Exodus, D.R.I., Suicidal Tendencies and that general sound.

Established in 2000, these Virginia boys show up a little late to the thrash party, but at least they seem to always have fun. This will be either an immature mess, or, that right balance of raucous fun and frivolity to make me overlook the normal trite concepts. Even though I have an idea on their sound, I’d hope for a little musical maturity after 20 years. Asking too much?

Municipal Waste is: Tony Foresta (Lead Vocals), Ryan Waste (Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals), Philip “Land Phil” Hall (Bass/Backing Vocals), Dave White (Drums) & Nick Poulos (Lead Guitar)

• Artist: Municiapl Waste
• Album: Electrified Brain (2022)
• Label: Nuclear Blast
• Total Track Time: 33:59

Electrified Brain is kicking off the album with a title track and a little electric chair sound, before slipping right into the Thrash attack. Has a nice aura of old school metal where the song is purely about a dude who wrongly went to the chair, but he returns from the dead with his “electrified brain” to kill the true villain. Simple concept, fun tune. Demoralizer, once again the title tells you everything you need to know. Crunchy and driving tune about having something or someone that just keeps you down and losing. The Demoralizer is something that you can defeat and you just surrender to the frivolity. Nice to not hear some weird positive at the end spin. Last Crawl definitely gets across that frat party/booze hound mentality they are known far. It’s obviously about a bender, and the narrator is unapologetic, just feels like he needs to buckle up and double down harder; ” I guess I’m here till the end, counting on my third wind, Should have paced myself smarter, Accidental bender, I just won’t surrender, I’ll just have to go harder”.

Grave Dive is a song that made me double take for a second. I thought this was a Dethklok song at first with a concept of digging up the corpses of fans and have them Stage Dive and hit the ground. As we’ve established, the titles aren’t very metaphorical. So it’s just a cool little rocking song with that group/crowd chant “Grave Dive” moment. This will probably be fairly popular at concerts. The Bite is a song about a plague, but very gore and zombie focused on the imagery. IF it was somehow inspired by covid, it doesn’t seem like it, it definitely feels like the premise for a shlocky horror movie with a McDonald’s budget. High Speed Steel, I’m pretty sure this song is about speeding out of Hell. Maybe the guys were watching Drive Angry? This is a little more classic heavy metal with the melodies and riffing, even the little battle chant “whoa” feels a little divergent from the other stuff so far. Thermonuclear Protection god damn this attacks with a crazy drum fill to just crack your skull coming out of the slower song. This could’ve easily been on an Exodus or OverKill album in the 80s. Still not super deep, but it’s got a nice groove with speed metal moments.

Blood Vessel/Boat Jail has a very cool intro, sounds like the impending doom of a slasher flick. This is so short, a little dumb, and reminds me of Stormtroopers of Death. Crank the Heat while the lyrics aren’t deep or evocative, this might be the first somewhat metaphorical song title on the album. “Therе’s too much talking and tearing down, Wasting all this precious time, I want to gеt in and stir it up, To retain my peace of mind, I gotta escape this messed up place, There’s no way I’d rather stay, We gotta get this town fired up, Gotta crank the heat today”, given the depth of topics thus far I was expecting a song about needing to sweat out drugs or poison for a job interview. But trying to say something about the current American landscape is more than I expected. It’s like the frat boy who gets a B minus in Economics, kinda surprised and proud. Restless and Wicked is in the magical metal vein that many bands love to venture. Feels a little bit like Megadeth‘s The Conjuring at times, but yea, evil, witches and necromancy.

Ten Cent Beer Night is not mincing words, it’s just about a rivalry game with a bunch of sports hooligans who are drunk on cheap beer and bravado. “Knife-wielding, chair-tossing drunks, Stumbling, stoked, fist-swinging punks, Ten cent beer night fuels this evening’s hunt”, I mean who hasn’t been here right? They end the song with a little Scorpions Rock You Like a Hurricane, so that little addition was cute, gained some points with me. Barreled Rage really just makes me think these guys watched a lot of the Public Access old school horror movie things. I know up in Jersey we had Macabre Theatre  hosted by Ivonna Cadaver. I don’t have much else beyond it sounds like a movie that might’ve made it on that show during the Troma marathons. Putting On Errors a minute and a half of just angry and fast thrash about Fake News and people buying into their stupid rhetoric. Paranormal Janitor continues with their weird combination of ghouls, gore and 80s influenced charm. It’s a paranormal high school “Municipal High”, and the custodial staff as to clean this all up.

I really can’t say I’m surprised with the album, but it is wrong to say I’m slightly disappointed? While nothing is bad or a sonic mess, it is very contrived and one note throughout. Now I’m fully aware some bands stick with the girl that brought them to the dance, so if this is who they are, they don’t deviate…but…can you? Fourteen songs, with only one over three minutes; and not a lot said beyond horror and gore is cool and beer is fun. Any 9 year old with an older sibling can tell you that as well.

Whereas my general disappointment is stated, nothing in this album is terrible. So it’s not a bad album. I just can’t find myself ever listening to this album again, maybe a song or two for fun, but this is just forgettable, cliché and inessential.  For the quick and dirty: Is it bad? No. Is it a hallmark album? Hell No. But hey, if you need irreverent songs just to jam out to without much thought, this is pretty solid.

Final Judgment: 6/10