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SGT. SLIME
Songs From The Sewer EP

Self-released (2018)
Rating: 5/10

Sgt. Slime is a Finnish thrash act I know little about apart from the fact that their three releases, including this one, have some of the worst cover art that I’ve ever seen. But onto the music…

This is some standard crossover crunch that’ll get the mosh pit bubbling nicely as the combo drags us through six snappy tracks, finishing things off with a pointless cover of Toxic Holocaust’s ‘Nuke The Cross’. Prior to that you get a quintet of solid tunes that bring to mind the likes of Anthrax, S.O.D., D.R.I., Suicidal Tendencies etc., featuring rather childish gang chants and lyrics, and a chugging simplicity that you may have first experienced back in the 80s when this style of toxic mish-mash was the in-thing.

Opener ‘The Slime Beast’ is a semi-aggressive plodder featuring a formulaic theme; you get the strong humorous stench, the brutish vocal chops and a strong marrying of mid-tempo juddering mixed with pacier, hardcore elements. It’s nothing fancy as we’re ordered to “Bow down to the slime beast”… although I simply refuse to.

The two-minute snap of ‘Motel Murder’ is another generic mosh-up, although the riffs are riddled with contagion as we’re drawn into this sweaty head nodder. The percussion is also sturdy enough to add extra weight before the predictable lash of a higher tempo emerges.

And that’s the theme throughout, Sgt. Slime taking us on an enjoyable romp with the likes of ‘Creatures’ and ‘Zombies!’; both of which suffer horrendously from a lack of imagination but which in turn are bolstered by their effective trudges. The former is a a sloppy combination of S.O.D. and a more contemporary strain of thrash / punk mimicry. It’s not big, it’s not clever, but it’ll please the kids who probably think this beer-soaked, horror-movie obsessed posse are the next best thing. Meanwhile, ‘Zombies!’ does pretty much sum up the whole sorry, slimy mess as it begins with a Slayer-type fizz until the vocal bursts of Nasu come in. “Don’t look back, you’re under attack” he chews, but it’s just your generic speedball of youthful aggression best suited to a drunken night out on the skateboards.

‘Medicate My Brain’ is sandwiched in-between the aforementioned two tracks, and again we’re forced fed the customary crossover chug and lyrics pertaining to madness. The only saving grace here, however, is the fact that the EP is so short, because any longer and I would have found myself foaming at the mouth.

Neil Arnold

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