Adventures in Musica

All day long, I've intended to fill this blog with thoughts on hometown heroes, The Verve, hitting the coveted number one spot with new album, 'Forth'.

Then something much more interesting happened; Media Monkey spewed forth modern day thrash lords, SSS, and their new album, The Dividing Line.

I say new, 'Dividing Line' isn't due out until some time in October (I think), but those nice people at Earache Records kindly allowed me to download a promotional copy so that I may wax critical over it as part of that thing I call my job.

And whilst a full review will be forthcoming for The LINC, I see no harm in enthusing about it for a little while here because damn am I ever enthused about it.

The last time I had the pleasure of writing about the SSS boys was with the release of their self-titled disc which, if memory serves me correctly, came out some time last year and blew me away.

Back then, I wrote:

Truth be told, The Dividing Line displays more of the same, but that's no bad thing.

Tunderous riffs smash against snarling bass as vocals chew the whole thing up and belch it back out again, and it's ultimately brilliant.

I think what surprises me the most about bands such as SSS, as well as Earache label-mates such as Municipal Waste and Evile, is that whilst many people still think of the oft-referenced 'Big Four' whenever the word 'thrash' is mentioned, these guys are taking the speed and fury synonymous with the genre and moulding it into a whole new, 21st century sound and showing everyone exactly how pure thrash should be done.

Like I say, I'll have a propper review done in time, but until then, if you even think you know what thrash is about, go get yourself some SSS and just see for yourself how it's done in 2008.