Every few years, there comes a band who says with confidence that they will take up the flag of thrash and carry it proudly into a new generation. Since the turn of the millennium, multiple acts have wrested control away from their contemporaries and walked miles with the standard flying high – Warbringer, Lazarus A.D, Black Tide (okay, not all flying high,) and most recently Power Trip, just to name a few. All of them have contributed to the thrash zeitgeist, but all have had to give up their grip on the genre for a variety of (often heart-breaking) reasons.
The flag seldom lay still for long, though. Enter into the conversation, Misfire, a three-piece outfit based in Chicago who seems on their face to have ‘understood the assignment,’ as the kids are so fond of saying these days.
If there’s something that seems familiar about Misfire, your ears don’t deceive you – two-thirds of Misfire is made up of a band who used to vie for control of thrash, Diamond Plate. Diamond Plate, for those who don’t recall, were part of a wave of bands that sought to usher in a youth movement in the American thrash scene and left us with two albums, the raw but respectable “Generation Why?” and the excellent, deep-grooved “Pulse,” before fading away into the recesses of memory. In the aftermath, nine years after “Pulse” left us asking for a little more, we have the debut of Misfire, and the name of the band can’t help but strike of a little irony.
The record, “Sympathy for the Ignorant,” succeeds in that there is no feeling-out here – too often in thrash, we are presented with an artist who hasn’t quite worked out their sound yet, or who has embraced the formula of thrash without a complete understanding of why the constants in the pattern are what they are. Conversely, from the opening strains of album starter “Fractured,” we see Misfire give us all the tricks and conventions we’re used to while displaying mastery of the form. There is a catchy riff off the top, which introduces the tone while still leaving enough empty space for the impact of each musical phrase to mean something. As the bass starts to reed through, the lead evolves, until eventually the engines are ignited, and now we’re off to the races.
The tone is important here. Thrash has long been built on the proverbial buzzsaw of guitar, and while Misfire respects that, there’s more ingredients in the brew than a simple recitation of the old days when Kirk Hammett’s guitar sounded like it was made out of ground glass and aluminum foil. Skip down to the middle of the album and “No Offense,” and while Misfire’s tone hasn’t changed, damned if this song doesn’t sound like it would have been at home on “Vulgar Display of Power.”
That adaptability is the secret of “Sympathy for the Ignorant,” and evidence enough that Misfire has spent a lifetime studying, learning and applying lessons from the masters. The average listener on the street might not be able to discern between thrash and groove metal, certainly not as Misfire portrays them here, but metal sommeliers will appreciate the manner in which Misfire has made a versatile blend.
While the album is easy to recommend for both thrash veterans who need a fix or the new generation of would-be thrash fans, there are some points worthy of discussion. “Sympathy for the Ignorant” carries some dead weight. For every mosh-ready ripper like “Red Flag” or breakdown-bearing bludgeon like “Death Trap,” there is a “He Said She Said,” an aimless banger that isn’t bad, but carries no real menace or sense of the moment. It’s a common issue in thrash records, not at all limited to Misfire, where maintaining the speed and gravitas of the album through every track is a nigh-impossible task. All the greats have suffered from it.
Additionally, “Sympathy for the Ignorant” doesn’t showcase the singular personality of many of the great thrash records that have come before. Misfire doesn’t present the inherent dread of Slayer, the boisterous threat of Pantera, or even the inherent recklessness of a band like Pro-Pain; they are caught between these three things, without accentuating one of their own. There is plenty of room for optimism, though – Diamond Plate’s debut was much the same and their sophomore effort fixed all of that.
The takeaway here is this: Misfire aims to be the next band to take up the flag for thrash and spearhead the genre for a new generation of fans. That’s laudable in and of itself, and “Sympathy for the Ignorant,” while not perfect, is a truly worthy successor to the bands that have borne the weight this far.
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