Do you spend whole weeks at a time listening to nothing but D.R.I. and Cryptic Slaughter? Do you wish that C.O.C. had stuck with the awesome hardcore/metal crossover direction they were going in instead of turning into a shitty southern rock band? Did you nearly cream your jeans when you heard about Hirax reuniting, or that Excel's Split Image was finally being reissued? Well, I think you've found your new favorite band!

As you may have guessed from the above references, Municipal Waste plays raging fucking 80s hardcore/metal crossover, done the old-fashioned way down to the very last detail. Hell, they even included the classic-style black-and-white photo collage. Normally I would look down upon such blatant old school worship, but there really aren't many bands playing this style of music nowadays and Municipal Waste do it as well as any classic band you'd care to name. The songwriting is damn near perfect. Every one of these tracks is memorable and will have you starting a circle pit in your bedroom within seconds. Of course, the songs are loaded with the mandatory amounts of speed, breakdowns and gang vocals that are usually associated with this genre.

Though Municipal Waste associates mostly with the hardcore scene, I'd say that musically they lean slightly more towards the metal end of the crossover spectrum. I'm one hundred percent positive that fans of both metal and punk will absolutely love this record once they hear it. Hardcore, metal, whatever, this is one of the best records I've heard all year, hands down.

Review by Mark Pennington

Review date: 08/2003

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