Arson

Don't let the short shorn melons, tough guy glares into the camera and Resurrection A.D. stamp on the packaging fool ya, this is one of the most metal things I've heard since the millennium commenced. In fact, the preceding checklist may be the only hardcore elements that went into this five-song EP because there sure as hell isn't any hardcore in the music. The NJ quintet sound like a cross between Morbid Angel, Pantera and a whole wack of second and third tier thrash bands who died in the early '90s (Atrophy, Exhorder, Cerebral Fix). Arson are a fortuitous, albeit wholly unoriginal collective of instrument abusing metalists who have the necessary aggression and venom, but lack the flair for anything beyond that.