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Braindead

      
         
         
         
     
             
Madhouse are a thrash metal band from Germany forming in 1997, releasing a couple of demos, 'Goin' Crazy' (1988) and 'Madhouse' (1989), before splitting up in 1991, with the band members moving on to other bands in the local area. The band reunited in 2014, releasing the 'Pure Metal' demo in 2017 and their first full length album 'Metal Or Die' in 2018 - an incredible thirty years after their first demo! Playing gigs in the local area to huge success, the band went on to record their second album 'Braindead', emerging in 2020.    
             
Delivering a crushing blend of thrash metal, Madhouse come hurtling towards you at over a hundred miles an hour. Definitely rooted in the brutally savage thrash metal territory owned by the Big Teutonic Four - Destruction, Kreator, Sodom and Tankard - Madhouse serve up a relentless forty five minute avalanche of aggressive thrash. The new album opens with the frenetic 'Break The Ice', speeding by at an electrifying pace. The mix of melodic thrash metal with brutality is stunning - 'Break The Ice' a ferocious opening. And incredibly, the pace is increased with the melodic speedster 'Never Say Die'. A cracking slice of thrash metal, 'Never Say Die' stands in the same zone with bands such as Annihilator, Flotsam And Jetsam, and Death Angel. With an upward rise in brutality, 'Who Made You God' is a ferociously fierce slab of thrash. Harder hitting than a knockout haymaker from a heavyweight boxing champion 'Who Made You God' is total devastation in action.    
             
And the devastation doesn't end there - 'Poisoned Blood' delivering a much more menacing feel than the opening triple salvo. High on energy and savagery, but less on speed, 'Poisoned Blood' is a pounding foot stomper. The title song 'Braindead' slows the pace even more, bringing forth a foot stomp that will crush anything that it stomps on. 'Braindead' (the song) is riff heavy, doom like, and a breather from the albums exhilarating opening third. Intensity takes off, and so does the pace, with the highly energetic 'Save Your Soul'. Running at a high velocity, 'Save Your Soul' is a mix of traditional metal and thrash that is head bangingly addictive, and will please fans of the heavy metal style as well. Madhouse have delivered an immense variety during the albums first half - I wonder what the second half will bring...    
             
...well, no need to wonder for long - heavy fucking thrash metal that's what! 'Last Man Standing' is a bustling furore of jack hammer style riffery and a pounding rhythm. Heads and feet are gonna be banging and stamping as one, the infectious level of 'Last Man Standing' setting new records. And new records are gonna be set in the speed race, with 'Knights Of Avalon' setting a blazing pace as it hurtles across the land. The hugely catchy and sing a long chorus is gonna be screeched and screamed by fans all over the world. And oh my fucking God - 'Oscar' is amazing. A high velocity pace with a traditional metal sound and a "foot on the monitor" attitude, and you have a sparkling thrash/heavy metal crossover moment. 'Oscar' is one of the best songs on offer, highly addictive and smile inducing. 'Evil Fantasies' maintains the pace set by 'Oscar', but takes the heaviness even heavier. Delivered at full tilt, 'Evil Fantasies' (and 'Oscar') deliver the most heavy metal feel on the album. What an ending to the bands sophomore album. What's that? It's not the end? Oh - there's a bonus song - a remix of 'Psycho God' from the bands debut album 'Metal Or Die'. Fast and furious, 'Psycho God' (remix) does bring an end to a cracking album.    
             
Overall, a frenetic and frantic romp of fierce thrash infused with the galloping sound of traditional heavy metal, 'Braindead' is a cracking album.    
             
             
Review by Iron Mathew Collins    
             
Reviewed for Pure Steel Records    
             
             
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