Review of the Album "Thrashback" by American Thrash Metal Band Whiplash

Thrashback is the 6^th studio album by New Jersey thrash metal band Whiplash and this one has Tony Portaro returning to vocal duties and this 1998 album is melodic and has some influences of the band Mokoma but we will get to that soon. The album starts with the song Temple of Punishment. The song is about a drug addict who cannot control his guilty pleasures and if he uses alcohol with those drugs, he will only cause his own demise to speed up even faster. Temporary pleasures with drugs and alcohol will only lead to bad consequences. Next comes the song Stab which is even more melodic and this song is about the fact that only those that are strong will survive. Weak and weary people normally don’t last long in our ultra-competitive world.

It is VERY hard to do consistently but we must treasure our every moment of life as this song states.

King With the Axe starts out very slowly as the Iron Maiden influence shows up again and the Mokoma influence is heard as well. The song is basically about an assassin that comes after his victims with full force. Strike Me Blind is a very melodic instrumental song filled with keyboard play as well as we hear the Mokoma influence. Thrashback is more melodic than the band’s 1980’s studio albums as they have matured greatly and there is also a Marty Friedman influence in that instrumental song.

Resurrection Chair is a song about a person that is somehow involved in a frantic search for a cure for his bad migraine headaches but how will he do it? In the meantime, we must be careful of those people that want to make our lives a living hell. The song describes the kind of person that would do that.

House With No Doors symbolically is a song about the fact that a person’s soul won’t leave this mysterious house that has no doors. Every day, his mind is filled with doubt as the walls are stained but there are no doors in this house. It is perhaps a description of a haunted house perhaps? Thrash ‘Til Death is a song that’s pretty much self-explanatory. Thrash metal listening and partying can take place with heavy metal fans until their death. Overall, Thrashback is a brilliant work that shows that there are still good American heavy metal bands out there and I am thankful for New Jersey’s Whiplash!