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Thraw are a modern day thrash band from Slovenia formed in 2006. Encephalic Oppressions is their third demo.
Musically this demo is pretty damn good. The songs are all strong examples of thrash with influences ranging from classics such as early Metallica and Exodus to Destruction, Tankard and modern thrashers Municipal Waste. The drums are high in the mix, possibly a bit too high for me to be honest, but the drummer keeps the beat nicely with some great kick drum moments. The guitars have a decent bite to them and there are some mighty riffs and good technical parts on display throughout the five songs on the demo. One of my favourite parts is the intro to Pandemic Reflection which is very reminiscent of Ride The Lightning era Metallica. Even the bass plays more of a role in this band than 90% of other thrash I've heard. Normally I wouldn't even have to bother mentioning the instrument at all!
The vocal department is where this demo loses a bit of interest for me as they sound far too much like Municipal Waste's Tony Foresta and I'm not a big fan of this sort of singing in thrash. It just doesn't have enough grit for me as I prefer the likes of Tom Angelripper, Rob Dukes and Andreas Geremia. I must stress that this is purely personal taste and although I've tried to be objective in this review, I just can't help wishing they were more raw! If, however, you like those sort of vocals then I think you'll appreciate the singer, Aleksander Smode, far more than I do.
Thraw have given us another good lesson in modern day thrash here. If you're into neck-cracking thrash with a technical edge this will be right up your street.
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