United - No IQ (1996)

Furious chugging thrash that emerged at exactly the wrong time, but even so, this takes the best moshing momtns of Anthrax and fuses them with a more primal sounding Pantera. In a sense fans of Sepultura and the likes may have enjoyed some of those harsher riffs and whilst the violent yelps, raps, and chants of Yoshiaki Furui give the album an even harder edge whilst his band rattle away at some speed to match his vocal frenzy. Bizarrely, and much to my surprise, these guys have released loads of albums, but has anyone heard of this fury before ? I'm guessing this fits into today's more clean sounding thrash acts, this doesn't mind wearing its heart on its sleeve, Slayer, early metallica, Pantera et al, although a track like 'Revenger' is ultra fast, full steam ahead angst with hardcore style vocal expression. 'No IQ' is the band's third opus. In other words, where the hell have they been all of our lives ? nice to hear thrash in the mid '90s that doesn't sound false. 6.5/10