This Dutch band started in 1996 by the name Abominations. They received positive reactions from the demos they’ve made and in June 2004 Chainsaw bring us Smell The Sa”, an old school thrash album that contains 11 tracks.
According to their biography they seem to be a bunch of crazy maniacs who like to fool around. But don’t get the wrong idea, they don’t just fool around. They make some kick ass metal that is in fact very professional in its own ‘Chainsaw way’. By this I mean their occasional ironic jokes combined with lyrics about sex, metal, death and of course the sexist cover of a woman chained by a man dressed in leather and a denim vest, in my opinion a very suitable cover for everything that Smell The Saw stands for. Metal, satire and maybe most importantly: the eighties.

The first song scared the shit out of me when I first put it in my CD player – which is usually at high volume. A deafening scream immediately introduces you to Chainsaw. Heavy and raw as hell, but I prefer the next song “Nightmare World” which has a more interesting chorus. I even caught myself on singing this a day later. Vocalist Aike is screaming his lungs out of his chest and has a voice – or growl – that is simply made for a raw thrash band like Chainsaw.

They build op tension very well and this is what plain thrash songs need, building up to something and eventually blowing up in a climax. They remind me of the German Assassin, Kreator, Warrant or Nuclear Assault in a way. The seventh song “Lay Down And Die”, a song apparently about, or for, a woman named Sylvia, is a very heavy song, a little less thrashier perhaps. Yet I like it a lot, it’s not one of those standard songs, and it includes some enjoyable solos. The next song smacks you in the face after the previous one. They continue with the familiar thrash which doesn’t become boring at any time, there’s something new in every song and that’s what I like so much about Chainsaw.

Chainsaw are very direct and straightforward but at the same time they’re able to bring interesting variations on this album. Songs like “Lay Down And Die” and “She Just Wants To Get Laid” show that Chainsaw are capable of doing various things other than t(h)rashing the hell out of their instruments. Yet again songs like “Nightmare World” and “Dead And Buried“ are thrash songs with a potential that is seldom seen on old school thrash releases these days. Check this out!