Catbreath Slice'em All

Every so often, the YouTube rabbit hole pays off. You're watching some music videos and before you know it a random band or song comes on that grabs your attention. Such is the case here for me with Catbreath. My attention was initially drawn to the album artwork. It looked ridiculous but also pretty fucking awesome. I'm a cat dad, so I was immediately sold on the band name and illustrated ferocious feline. I figured they were a joke band with songs about cats or something, but most of the lyrics are politically charged and speak of protest, civil unrest, equality and rebellion.

Slice 'em All (I'm assuming a play on Metallica's Kill 'em All) is one hell of a debut album. These German crossover thrashers harness the aggression, precision and speed of fellow countrymen Kreator and Destruction (who interestingly enough can be seen on a poster on the cover) but also throw healthy doses of rhythmic intensity into the mix. What's great is that this album has a nice mix of both catchy bangers like "Black Revenger" and "Head of the Snake" that definitely play more to the crossover aspect of their sound, while "Plastic Smile" and "Blood Spill Claw Kill" are just dirty straightforward thrash grenades that detonate on impact.

The album doesn't overstay its welcome either with 11 tracks clocking in at just under 30 minutes. If you've got half an hour to invest in some fantastic crossover thrash, you needn't look anywhere else. There's no cat shit or fur balls here. Only Catbreath

~TJ