So, here’s to a metal band that started activities in 1983 and stayed active since then, with a damn heap of noticeable interruptions. Thrash and some Traditional Metal ever has been and still is its game. Well, kind of, with some variations. And no, the act ain’t called Metallica. Even if the Grammies seem to think that the latter are the only metal band around – at a global scale.
Nasty Savage play a barebone style of brutal Thrash Metal that was modern back in the ’80s and never evolved since. All of that ferocious nastiness is led by one – wait for it – Nasty Ronnie.1 A colorful dude full of interesting stories about reptiles, motorbikes, the long-gone IWF, and rampant filmmaking. Slamming harsh thrash onto the unsuspecting public seems to be one of his additional talents. One that he indulged in over the last four decades or so.
And there’s movement in the lineup. The bass and guitar jockeys seem to be all shiny and brand new over at Nasty Savage. But then, dragging their feet with issuing a new album for 20 years might lead some members to defect. Not that this made an iota of difference. The guitar performance and gritty style are fully in sync with what came before.
Quite unsurprisingly, Jeopardy Room sports all those worn-out and age-old tropes. Such as the listless references to fantasy lore, the devil’s machinations, some witches’ brew, and nasty females driven to violent rockgasms. That’s so ’80s sigma-male scumbaggery and outside of today’s happy gendered world, it elicited some genuine evil chuckles from the equally malevolent perpetrators over at the review desk.
The record comes fully equipped with corrosive riffs that feel like coarse sandpaper riding down your eardrums. In fact, the band appears to borrow some of their riffage from the Deathly Ones and the rest mostly from Thrash Central. A relentless assault of pretty typical thrash vibes, some prog and death, and acid screechy solos that pop up at any inappropriate moment. The merciless assault of Nasty Ronnie‘s toned-down Tim Baker-ish2 howls truly inject some peppery spice into the mix. An angry mélange of rough-hewn alloy that bores down on you like a metallic rock slide about to engulf you.
And here we go again, it’s symptomatic, ain’t it? Same as the aforementioned Metallica, Jeopardy Room also seems to suffer from a somewhat generic drum performance. But the dreaded snare still is in the green and we’re far away from a replay of a St. Anger-style catastrophe. Even if the anemic clickety-click of the bass drum seriously went South of our good graces. But – in the end – those are still relatively minor quibbles.
Finally, Jeopardy Room turned into one of those ‘at the right time and the right place’ moments. A rabble-rousing mountain of razor-sharp and red-hot thrash with enough hints of different genres to keep those meager pickings interesting. Nasty Savage mean business and they deliver it with a no-nonsense, straight-in-your-face brand of scratchy Thrash Metal. A shrewdly glib yet comfortably unsophisticated pounding of thorny metal that will burn that mental fat right off your neurons. It is damn easy to picture those unchained savages whipping the fan crowd to a fiery frenzy on stage with the mosh pit in full and violent action.
I can only invite you to step into their dusty abode and enjoy a dangerous slab of juicy metal, made without any modern accouterments or other cheap frills. Mean, gritty, full of grainy scratches, and just plain good. So, don your biker jacket but enter the Jeopardy Room at your own peril. Rusty nails and sharp edges may cause you some injury. You have been warned.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: FHM Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 10 October 2024