A Review of the Album Blatant Disregard for Human Life by Canadian Thrash Metal Band Martial Law

Martial Law is another one of the growing list of thrash metal bands by the US's great northern neighbor Canada. This follows in line with several other thrash metal bands I have written about before including Hazzerd, W.M.D., and Terrifier. This next thing that I am about to say might make some fans wonder but Canada is a country that is rising in the genre of thrash metal and some of you in the United States won't admit this because you think that the United States is the greatest nation on Earth (a claim made by so many people). Even with the high screeching vocals of this band, the music is still very much listenable.

The band Martial Law helps Canada become more musically diverse

Canada has made great strides in the music department and this is not just a nation of a few famous bands such as Anvil, Rush, and even Annihilator.

There is a feel of a more modern Megadeth Peace Sells but Who's Buying in this album which is a good thing. This follows a blue style solo that the late Dimebag Darrell would have used but this one is of better quality than those later ones in Pantera's career. There is also the influence of early Florida death metal in the last song and I can tell because the guitar sound is like the older death metal in terms of the feel and the production may seem like it too and this may turn off some fans but somebody who is into thrash metal should find this album an enjoyable listen still.

There was no intention to say that American metal is bad but that it has evolved into something different and it is not out of the question that Canada is a country that could really become a thrash metal hotbed if it isn't already.

The album starts off with the raw sounding song called Thick Skull. The song is lyrically about the fact that so many people have been locked up and brainwashed by society to get caught up in a materialistic lifestyle so that they could buy things that they don't even need. Subservient is a song that lyrically tries to tell us that the people of Earth have been conditioned to become a consumerist society as their freedoms are shredded. It is said that politics is a very dirty business and in a lot of cases it is a business that makes money at the expense of brainwashing people to come over to one side over another. In a sense, it is kind of accurate that in some places of the world there is a disregard for human life. Data Master is a song that sounds like early Black Sabbath but the production is better with this being a 2015 album. Corrosive Decisions is a song that ells the tale of a person that cannot get rid of the demons of his or her past. They cannot see straight anymore as they seem to be stuck in a cycle of thoughts that they cannot escape from. Nothing Changes is a raw, heavy sound that could have a multitude of influences including Napalm Death which is one of those that I see. There is not just lies, greed, and debauchery that the song tries to point out but that there are also good things happening in the world but most of us just don't see them.

Final thoughts

Transparency is the song that ends this decent album from this band from Calgary. The vocals definitely take getting used to as they have this sort of scream combined with a high screech that makes it sound like black metal. Martial Law is a decent band but it is not as good as a few other Canadian bands that have established themselves since 2010.