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Review: Infrared - Back to the Warehouse
Infrared
infraredmetal.ca
Back to the Warehouse

Label: Independent
Year released: 2019
Duration: 25:22
Tracks: 5
Genre: Thrash Metal

Rating:
4/5


Review online: August 20, 2019
Reviewed by: Michel Renaud
Readers' Rating
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Rated 3.78/5 (75.56%) (9 Votes)
Review

Ottawa's Infrared have been pretty active, especially in the live scene, since they reunited back in 2014 after their 1985-1990 early career. I've already seen them live a few times. Back to the Warehouse is a teaser EP containing some of their old material (album of new material coming soon?), so this stuff is about as old-school thrash as it gets. And I'm loving it.

First, the bad. This starts with a fart. A fart. Tabarnak de câlisse (that's French-Canadian slang/swearing, for the uninitiated). Seriously? I've found English-speaking people to be somewhat obsessed with the anus ("I shat myself" and variations on that), but, really? Argh! I just needed to bitch about it. It's only a split second at the beginning. It annoys me (OK, in all fairness, that's not all that hard to do). It's not even juvenile. I didn't find that funny when I was 5. Maybe I should have used Audacity to edit it out of the mp3 and just shut the fuck up about it, but I didn't. So there. Maybe I'll get a free beer out of my bitching distress? (Hint, hint... ;))

Alright, nonsense aside, let's get to the music. If you've heard Infrared very good albums, No Peace and Saviours), you're in for a ride in the same boat, so basically it's catchy, fast thrash with some really precise and punishing drums. I mean, seriously, I usually don't pay so much attention to the drums, but here everything revolves around them and the vocals and guitars just add so much to the intensity. It's a headbanging fest from beginning to end. Armin Kamal's clean but visceral vocals will just stick into your mind right away and you just can't help but sing along on subsequent listens. Throw in some really fucking cool guitar work with some solos that purely and simply call for the air guitar. This EP is so damn catchy, it's not funny. The whole thing is stuck in my head. Hey, here's a bonus: the closing track is a cool cover of the Iron Maiden classic "Wrathchild". Infrared didn't deviate much from the original, but they do play it with their own style, to really great effect. Awesome. Then you have the EP on repeat and there's that fart again. Tabarnak. Anyway, if you like your thrash "clean" (well, OK, maybe the fart doesn't fit here...), catchy, fast and precise, you owe it to yourself to check out Infrared. Prrrrt!

More about Infrared...
Review: From the Black Swamp (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
Review: No Peace (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Saviours (reviewed by Michel Renaud)
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