Review of the Album "Lethal Revenge" by Canadian Thrash Metal Band W.m.d. Also Known as When Minds Develop

W.M.D. or When Minds Develop is a Canadian thrash metal band from the city of Calgary and I discovered this band just in September 2019. The vocals are similar to the Terrifier, the other Canadian thrash metal band that uses blazing speed to its advantage. What is coming is a review of their studio album called Lethal Revenge.

One of the most important qualities of an elite thrash metal band is to not only be able to use speed and make the riffs sound nice, but effective time changes from soft to fast to soft also has to be there in the music and W.M.D. definitely has both of these. Canada is a nation that is growing in its thrash metal scene.

If you thought Canada was a nation that was only good for hard rock think again! Canada was responsible for giving birth to the band Annihilator, the good groovy female fronted band Kittie and now here comes Calgary’s When Minds Develop With a chance to show that they are one of Canada’s newest and best thrash metal bands and you know what? They show that they can clearly make things stand out very effectively in this album.

The song Ignition begins this album with some drumming and the sound is like the band Distillator. Oh, yes that Dutch band Distillator has impressive riffs and so do these guys! There is a resemblance to Metallica’s Hit the Lights in this song. Just like Germany’s Kreator, the lyrics focus on the end of the world scenarios but in no way is this band depressing because you will be entertained from start to finish. If you enjoyed the band Terrifier which had more intense kind of thrash metal, then When Minds Develop should be no problem to handle. The title track Lethal Revenge has the sound of a bell and then the acoustic guitar starts this song. And then there is speedy thrash that is 1980’s influenced but the great modern sound dominates this song as there is talk of summoning demons but this album and band most definitely will not depress you at all.

Fragmentation has a nice slower part with some vocals about what happens when souls get lost. There is a countdown of 4, 3, 2, 1 and the message that people had better run for their lives. Thrash Attack is influenced by the band Slayer. I also hear a trace of the song Perfect Virus in this one as there are chants of “thrash attack.” This is one of those songs that may cause a person to really want to have drinks and party.

Vocalist and guitarist Skyler Mills shows that he can sing and hold his voice for the proper amount of time without straining himself. He sounds somewhat like Dave Padden. He is even better than the vocalist for the band Hexen. Canada has evolved a long way from the bands Razor and Exciter.

There are not too many heavy metal albums that will get a 100 points from me but Lethal Revenge is one of those albums that comes pretty darn close to that kind of score.