Expulsion, Wasteworld

Following the release of their debut EP, The Mass Insanity, Expulsion went into hiding for four years, sharpening their skills and gearing up to deliver one hell of an album. The Netherlands-based group’s full-length debut Wasteworld throttles the listener through twelve well written tracks chock full of speedy, melodic thrash. Just about every song is packed with tremendous technical shredding, thrashing riffs, creative drum work and an equally impressive vocal delivery.

There’s no wizardry or black magic that makes this such an enjoyable album — it’s just straight up thrashing death metal with a solid production. While not as ferocious or as speedy as the likes of Impiety, these dudes certainly know how to string along some slick guitar work and thundering drums into a great ebb and flow of blasting groove mixed with devastating thrash.

Avidya
Twenty five seconds of faded in guitars with a melodic touch serve as an intro to the album.

Land Of Empty Graves
“Land Of Empty Graves” gets down to business with thrashing riffs, slick picking and raw, screamed vocals that dip into the guttural range here and there. While a majority of the song is set to 11, the band knows when to slow it down and do so in all the right spots. A great way to open up your debut album.

Neoconomicon
Slower building and darker riffs get this next one off to a bleak start before the vocals and a thick thrashing rhythm come in. You’ve got to love a band that’s already at full throttle and then cranks up the blasts just that much more to make themselves seem slow. This is a monster of a song. A nice Slayer like lead at 1:55 will have you grinning for the remainder of the song.

End Of Days
Trucker speed fueled thrash that’s unrelenting dominates this song. I’m not sure how much more my brain can handle. These guys are dishing out one hell of a cerebral beat-down. Again, these guys do a great job of delivering the thrash, yet keep everything in focus, shifting up the rhythms, adding nice flow to each song. Man, this is a beastly track that has an early Kreator touch to it.

Martyr
A seriously off-kilter time signature will leave you dizzy after the first 30 seconds, as “Martyr” unleashes a flurry of squealing guitars and rapid fire drums. If the previous couple of tracks lulled you into a single minded thrash groove, this one certainly breaks the mold and wakes you the fuck up. It seems like each song builds on the previous one, eclipsing everything you liked about it.

Messianic Shadows
Hell yeah! The riffs in this one are a bit slower based, but much much burlier than the previous tracks. And opening up with a smooth lead overtop of them is a nice touch. There’s some nice depth to this song, that comes from the varied vocal delivery and some subtle production tweaks.

Promise Never Made
“Promise Never Made” takes a hard left out of the thrashing death lane and into a more structured, melodic thrash realm. the riffing is still pretty beefy, but there is an overall shift in the band’s sound with this one, taking on a feel similar to The Haunted with some spoken vocals and more dramatic guitars.

Police State Tranquillity
After the slight shift in sound, Expulsion dive back into the darkness with some massive riffing and swirling hooks. The tone on this one is definitely much darker with more guttural vocals and thicker guitars. The one minute mark has the band blasting into a ferocious series of thrashing riff and pummeling drums. The quickly hitting snarls and growls make this section of the song one not to miss — just pay no mind to the weird clean signing after the 2:30 mark.

Wasteworld
The title track has some of the sickest guitar work on the album, punctuated by Nintendo Game Boy like noodling craziness. The short two minute instrumental is nothing more than a bunch of shredding guitars, nicely structured rhythms and sickness. Wow.

Spirit Emission
“Spirit Emission” gets back into the death thrash mode, with some more Haunted like spoken vocal verses. There’s s decent groove flowing through this one that goes well with the thick guitars and rapid fire vocals.

Avidya II
“Avidya II” serves as a transition to the final track on the album with mournful guitars and dramatic touch.

Re-Examination
The guitars from the previous song carry over into this final blast of thrashing death metal. More spoken vocals pop up a bit more often on this song, but don’t take away from the thundering gallop of beefy drums and slick guitars. There is more going on within the confines of this song that require more than one listen to fully absorb — it truly is a culmination of all that the band has to offer.

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Additional Notes:
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