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VIRGIN SNATCH
We Serve No One

Mystic Production (2014)
Rating: 6/10

Yep, Poland’s Virgin Snatch has one of the worst band names in history, but thankfully the music is more rewarding. We Serve No One is the fifth studio outing from this Kraków-based quintet who specialise in high-octane thrash metal, and have done since their 2001 inception.

We Serve No One features Zielony (Łukasz Zieliński) on vocals, Jacko (Jacek Nowak) on drums, Anioł on bass (Piotr Wącisz) and the twin guitar attack of Grysik (Grzegorz Bryła) and newest member Pavlo (Paweł Pasek).

Now, I hadn’t heard any of the band’s previous offerings and must admit I was expecting this record to be a rather generic thrash affair, but was extremely surprised by the vocal variety and melody on offer. Firstly, the vocals. Well, for the most part they are an intense, dry growl, but then something intriguing happens in the lines of ‘Sister Revolution’, which is clearly influenced by the dynamics of nu-metal, such is the clearer melody which belts out “I warn you, pistols don’t argue, they will do, anything you ask”. That’s not to say that this vocal contradiction doesn’t work; in fact, it does, especially as the track continues to race by with a real aggression, particularly in the drums and volatile riffs.

‘Fingerprints’ begins with a marching drum before the percussion takes on a jarring tone, and then a churning riff – reminiscent of Anthrax – comes into the fray. However, vocally it’s far more streetwise, almost choppy in its raps which work in cohorts with the gruff growls. I guess it wouldn’t be unkind to call this groove thrash, but it remains fluid throughout and extremely tight at that. There’s no room for daft humour; this is straightforward yet well thought out thinking man’s thrash metal that isn’t afraid to experiment with variety and technicality.

‘Escape From Tomorrow’ is immense with its opening solo and weighty drum assault, and this superb piece of guitar work continues as the band weigh in with another straightforward thrash assault. The title track plus ‘No Justice, No Peace’ prop up the mid-section of the opus, with the latter being a riotous affair of hurtling percussion and angry, frothing vocal sneers that border on death metal barks.

‘Disintegration’ begins in peculiar, progressive flaky fashion before the whine of the guitar and another militant drum wallop, but it’s also the one track on the opus where the cleaner vocals become more of an irritant, again hinting at that nu-metal quality. If anything, this is more System Of A Down than thrash metal, but I can see why these guys find comfort melting the two styles together.

The album closes with ‘Devil’s Ride’, which begins with classic thrash riffage, building slowly with menace and becoming a mid-tempo beast, but by this point the soaring clean vocals have become too much to bear for me in spite of the injection of menace to them.

As albums go, Virgin Snatch have once again attempted something different and for that I commend them. As thrash metal exploration goes, however, there still appears to be a distinct lack of variety as the album rages on, but there’s still an interesting shift in tempo throughout.

Neil Arnold

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