Review of the Album "Thrashletics" by German Thrash Metal Band Ravager

“Thrashletics” is the second studio album by German thrash metal and hardcore band Ravager as this is the second installment or chapter of this young band’s career. Once again, lyrically this is an album about wars and other political issues. “Descending Dawn” is a very nice way to begin this album and this is foreshadowing that Thrashletics will be better than their debut album. Or will it be? The title track is a song that lets the listener know that these guys are here to play thrash metal and they do not lessen their intensity of the heaviness. Get ready for even faster, technical thrash metal and are you hungry for more?

Society of Blunted State is a song about being sickened by all the bad news stories and the violence that is reported by the mainstream news media. Even though we sometimes cannot believe that these acts of violence occur, that is part of the world that we live. If you take a look in the mirror what do you see? Once again though, the formula for this thrash metal band is to continue a predictable pattern of melody filled songs that are fast and have hardcore style vocals and this can sometimes get old kind of fast.

One song called “Slaughter of Innocents” has actual dialogue from a soldier or commander being questioned about whether he was responsible for any massacres in Mylai. This was one of the major incidents during the Vietnam War and in the spoken part, the man denies being responsible for such an atrocity. It is often said that it is politics that wins or loses a war for all sides. The song has a mixed rhythm and lead guitar part that is clearly 1980’s influenced. The album’s title is just like athletics except there is the word thrash in it to signify that these guys indeed play thrash metal and Thrashletics is a notch up in the right direction from their debut album. The last riff kind of reminds me of early Blind Guardian now I’m not saying that these guys are a better band than Blind Guardian but this last riff and lead guitar part was influenced by them. The part sounds so beautiful that it is able to fit in and really work!

The song called “Kill for Nothing” kind of sounds like Megadeth’s famous song called She-Wolf in the Cryptic Writings. The song is about attempting to understand what is wrong with a person that is dedicated to really harming others in such a nasty way. Just like regular physical activity has many health benefits, listening to quality thrash metal is great for our mood in some cases. Ravager is a band that should get better as their career goes on.

The last song in this album called “Dead Future” has a sort of melodic Iron Maiden feel to it before it really speeds up in usual Ravager fashion. After one full listen to Germany’s Ravager and their second album Thrashletics, we have to give this album no less than 80 points out of 100.