'Ticket's There' – Irish and International Music Blog

Tickets There is sick. Sick of Indie, sick of singer / songwriter, sick of all the heap of shit poncy, waste of space bands out there. Have I done anyone thing to stop these bands getting attention? No!, the four people that read my blog may never have known about some of the bands I detest if I hadn’t written about them. The MySpace review isn’t meant to be dedicated to tearing suspected shit bands apart (or about saying shit four hundred and sixty times in every review). It’s meant to be about finding a good band and a few months ago I did…

Mass Extinction came to my attention when I was in the grips of a Slayer / Megadeth buzz and being the internet nerd I am, I decided to see if Ireland has a thrash metal scene. Turns out it does and some of the acts aren’t half bad. Raging Conflict has a good bit of strength behind them, Gama Bomb have the odd good one but Mass Extinction take the cake. Real thrash aggression, powerfully played by a great band. Fuck Indie and read on.

As usual, I haven’t seen the band live and because I’ve been so dedicated to building up friends, listening to Judas Priest and going drinking, I haven’t had a chance to listen to the EP I bought about a month ago. Don’t believe me? Couldn’t care less, Tickets There doesn’t lie.

Global Assign tumbles along with a great little riff. Hard, fast thrash that assaults through the speakers. Volume has to go up for this one because the drums are the only thing lacking here and I want them pumping. There isn’t anything new in terms of sound or structure. I mean, Thrash metal is Thrash metal. If it sounded different it wouldn’t be Thrash, but these guys know how to fucking rock the boat. The only thing missing is the catch which generally isn’t captured by a band until they have some serious stage time under their belts. The singer isn’t trying to sound like any of the big four which makes a welcoming change and the band are tight as fuck. Wicked, what’s next!

Kill on Command thunders through the speakers now as the metal buzz grows. All the instruments come pounding together and lead singer Tom’s vocals roar through the verse likes there’s no tomorrow (a classic cliché if ever there was one). A common trait among new metal bands is half assed, rip off solos and thankfully, Mass Extinction has neither. Sure they probably sound like someone else’s but that’s just an unfortunate downside to playing music that’s been around for almost thirty years (for Indie fans, think of U2 and the Killers). Something I’ve noticed on these first two tracks is a refusal to explode into a dominating chorus, something that led to bands like Metallica and many others leaving their thrash roots. This makes it clear that ME have no desires on breaking Top of the Pop’s any time soon.

Nuclear Dawn wastes no time getting straight down to business with one of those awe inspiring intro’s of aggressive drums and solo’s. More powerful, darker and in your face than the previous songs. Did I actually complain about the drum sound earlier? Jesus, this thing would have your neck in pieces if you saw it live. The only flaw in this song is you have to wait for almost three minutes before Brian (or Adam’s) lead guitar comes tearing back, looking for vengeance. Obviously these lads were raised on a  diet of Ride the Lightening and Master of Puppets. The influence ooze’s out but here’s where their different from all the Killers / Joy Division / Smiths Indie rip off bands, Mass Extinction can fucking do it well and make it sound fresh rather than sounding like BLATANT FUCKING SHITE!

Bound in Flesh sadly brings the most enjoyable MySpace Review I’ve ever done, to an end. Rather than opening with a tearing guitar solo, the band return to formula as pounding drums and a duel lead riff bounce back and forth before muting down into a brooding background behind Tom’s vocals. More reserved than the previous tracks but just as powerful. The bridge solo around two minutes in  has a touch of Megadeth flat lining about it. Powerful, aggressive and totally fucking downplayed (in a good way). No showing off, no attempt to make the listener feel joy, just a hard, fast assault on the system. Not the strongest song of the bunch but pretty severe. The solo towards the end once again displays the lead guitars talent for perfectly placed solos without going into overkill.

Tickets There says…go and buy their E.P. right (might as well swear one last time) FUCKING now!

This entry was posted on June 3, 2009 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Music, MySpace Review with tags Dublin Metal, Mass Extinction, Mass Extinction review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.