Live Review: Municipal Waste, Party Vibez, MetalStorm, Join The Amish

It's 1986 all over again at the Bendigo hotel tonight, as the local thrash contingent don their best bandanas, patch riddled denim jackets and Sunday best sneakers for a night of head banging, palm-muted riffs and delinquent schoolboy humour with Virginia's best crossover thrash exponents, Municipal Waste.

Opening act Join The Amish may have a name that sounds like a piss take, but there's nothing laughable about the show they put on tonight. Tight, fast and aggressive, the band proceed to tear through their set, audience eyes trained on vocalist Pete Alexander as he opts out of using the cramped stage and dominates the pit floor instead. The set highlight is the menacing and demonically tri-toned Mascara Storm(Disgrace To Slayer), a track which opens giving a respectful nod to Slayer before morphing into a more classic thrash number.

The high gain amps continue to have their tubes tested with MetalStorm, a band who more than live up to their name. Double kicks and blast beats comprise the majority of the set, with many a raucous metal aficionado letting loose their locks for a few windmills while they still have elbow room. MetalStorm are yet another Melbourne metal band that has clearly knuckled down and put in the hard yards at the rehearsal space.

Good time boys Party Vibez prove the perfect band to usher in Municipal Waste, with their light-hearted approach to the not-so-gentle art of ripping shit up. Churning out track after galloping track from their 2012 LP, Legends of Gnarlia, they succeed in melting faces and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. At one point a boogie board emerges and is immediately put to good use in the pit, the centre of gravity of those surfing at the mercy of those below.

The next hour sees Municipal Waste pump out their classic brand of tongue-in-cheek tunes, with opener Intro/Deathripper from 2005's Hazardous Mutation the fuse that detonates the pent up audience. Bodies flying and circle death pits erupting, this is what thrash is all about: a heaving, sweaty ball bag of a crowd being hammered by a band upping the intensity with each track. Mind Eraser adds some heavy chug before You're Cut Off from recent long player The Fatal Feast reminds all of the band's unhealthy love affair with the amber fluid. Introduced as one of a few tracks possibly not being played at Sunday's Corner show, Divine Blasphemer gets drummer Dave Witte warmed up with its double kick intro.

Vocalist Tony Foresta cannot wipe the smile from his face as he commands the stage, loving the dedication from the surging audience and dishing out ample praise for those who made it to this mid-week show. Beer Pressure is hilarious thrash at its best, delivered without a hitch.

Finishing up with The Art Of Partying, the boys from Richmond Virginia leave the crowd a frazzled husk of humanity, having dished out a facial blast of 100-proof thrash that is more than worth the post-gig-tinnitus.