Germany has been the homeland of some of the best thrash metal bands for a long time. This is reflected in the fact that Germany still has a very loyal and fanatic thrash metal scene . Abandoned first appeared in 2006 with their debut album “Thrash Notes” and several gigs at big festivals in Germany. Now, only one year later, Abandoned bring us their new album “Thrash You!”.

Abandoned plays heads-down bay area thrash remniscient to Kreator and Exodus with excellent Heathen-like soloing. There is more than enough variation throughout the album to let it become a repetitive thing, which, in my opinion, seperates Abandoned from the big mass of non-creative bands. This is also due to excellent drumming which is very tight all of the time. The riffs are catchy and make me want to bang my head all the time. However some of the riffs seem to be directly borrowed from other bands. The soloing is very fast and tight, though rather short. However, there are some longer solos which make the music go into a first-class frenzied madness.

Although there is nothing completely new on this album, it is all done in a superb way, combining coherent song writing with excellent soloing.

So far the good news. The big downside to this album is without any doubt the utterly terrible and uninspired vocals. Whenever the singer tries to do anything melodic -that is all the time- he fails miserably. He is completely holding back, trying to sound as “normal” as possible. Personally I would have preferred a more extreme voice, putting more emphasis on the speed of the album.

Despite the bad vocals, this is one of the best new albums I’ve heard this year. The whole album seems to be made for furious headbanging and devastating moshpits. So if you like great thrash and German beer, be sure not to miss out on this one!

Highlights: “Sands of Time”, “This is the End” and “Trapped”.