Municipal WasteSlime and Punishment

I remember interviewing Municipal Waste guitarist Ryan Waste in 2009 when the band was releasing Massive Aggressive. It was the record that had to follow on from their raucous thrashterpiece The Art of Partying. At the time Waste was saying how the band wanted to get away from the hard partying shit, that they wanted to say something meaningful about the fucked up world around them. The resulting album was really only saved by the drumming of Dave Whitte, who practically shits gold every time he enters a recording studio, and a handful of songs that explored the punkier side of their crossover thrash sound. In 2012, the dudes returned with The Fatal Feast, a quasi-concept album about the band being in space which ended up being like a Troma film—a funny idea that wears thin when it’s given full-length treatment. Five years later, and a number of side projects later, Municipal Waste have hit reset and it sounds fucking sublime. Slime and Punishment is the dudes embracing the low-rent, Heavy Metal Parking Lot charms that made Art of Partying one of the most indispensable metal records of the noughties. A boozy thrash record that proves that having fun is more enjoyable than being smart, Municipal Waste seem to relish the position they spent the last decade trying to disavow. Embracing their identity has helped the Waste deliver the record that beer-addled shitbirds have been wanting for 10 goddamn years. I’ll drink to that.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Bourbon Discipline, Dingy Situations, Excessive Celebrations
STICK THIS NEXT TO: D.R.I., Mindsnare, Suicidal Tendencies