RAMMING SPEED - "BRAINWRECK" DIGIPAK

At their self-affixed face value, Ramming Speed might appear to be just another "stage-diving, pool partying, pizza tossing, circle pitting, guitar soloing, law breaking" thrash metal band. And I guess in many respects maybe they are, but there's an extra layer of substance (I'll call that the "crust" in what results as a delicious punk genre pun) underneath these standard toppings that has kept me coming back over and over again. After playing the shit out of the four songs on MySpace (now six!) and their previous 7″, I finally sunk my teeth into the limited release of Brainwreck on vinyl and it's great.

A gamut of (relatively similar, sure) genres is run here, and it seems that these guys spent as much time listening to D.I. and the Replacements as they did Anthrax and Discharge, even though most of the sound leans toward the latter style. But that influence of the gritty-yet-poppy might be what keeps this pie fresh. Lyrically, there's enough here to satisfy the party animal in all of us while also quenching the thirst of those who maintain a healthy suspicion of The Man. Live and let live, dude. As their last round of touring had them making a stop at The Fest and later this year they're sharing a stage with Napalm Death, hopefully you get the idea.

Along with dine-in (vinyl), this solid blend of punk, hardcore, metal, thrash, grind, etc, is also available for carry-out (CD). The cutting wheel has yet to be reinvented, but this might be the best thing since sliced pizza.

NOTE: There are actually no songs about pizza on this record. Minus one star. Also, the last song is a pretty weak tribute to the gods of heavy metal and is something like burning the roof of your mouth on the last bite of pizza, if that were possible.