Terrordome
Straight Outta Smogtown

Cool cover that triggers the imaginations, but that is more or less everything that is cool with the latest effort by Polish band Terrordome. I read the same thing as I always read in the press material, gibberish about bands they have stage with, usually meaning that they appeard on the same festival. I think labels or promotors have a harder time hiding the fact that all they want to do is invoice someone for the same generic product as before, how can you be enthusiastic about just another thrash metal album?

Straight Outta Smogtown is about as generic as they come with the regular breakneck speed aggressive riffing, the shouty vocals that almost every thrash metal band do, and so on ad infinitum. I wonder how a band can do the same for decades, I would imagine that I would have grown bored with the same style after one, or two albums at most. Then again, I guess it is easy to fall into patterns, I have done Hallowed for quite a while too and it isn’t really a shining beacon of renewal either – the good thing is that reviewing music isn’t really about breaking new ground but rather looking at what others do. And looking at what Terrordome and many others do have me question why I keep doing this, is it worth listening to and write about generic stuff? Fortunately everything isn’t like this, even the thrash metal genre has several exciting albums and bands that dare to be different.

I guess the generic bands have their role to play in making us appreciate the great exceptions whenever they appear, but the amount of dilution from albums like this make these exceptions more and more unlikely to find. As you note from my generalisations, rather than focus on the album, it is a difficult album to really care about and focus on as it is the same dull stuff as ever. Why not dare to makes something different? For me it feels like a major waste of time to play through and then write about something that does nothing for me, if only I had looked at the release date before starting work on this album. But the choices are random from a playlist, and it would be even more waste to do the work and not finish it.

Some albums are more like work or a chore than a pleasure to listen to, when you go through a lot of music it is hard to find the enthusiasm for those that doesn’t bring something new to the table. I just hope that someone makes a bit of money out of for it not to be the complete waste it was for me to listen to it.

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