Crossover thrash is and always has been some of my favorite thrash around. From the first note of S.O.D.’s classic Speak English or Die through D.R.I.’s Crossover I have always loved the fast, catchy, chaos that lives and breathes from this music. Hell, in high school my friends and I even had our own crossover band and had written some 2 minutes long crossover thrash songs, granted they were not good songs but hey, we were kids! Hell, I even remember some of the lyrics to the song we wrote called Nic Fit, I believe it went something like “I ran out of smokes / have no more dope / there is no more hope / NIC FIT!” Definitely not Shakespeare but fit the mold of crossover thrash quite nicely I think. By the way, we never made it big just in case you were wondering.
Birth A.D. has release I Blame You and they have done a fine job living up to the crossover thrash moniker. There songs are aggressive, fast, memorable and touch on the socio/political topics in the US today. Some of what they are singing about skirts the edge of offensive (depending on who you are, I guess) but it works in the Devil’s Advocate kind of way. Much like Nuclear Assault brought social issues to the fore front of their music Birth A.D. is doing the same. Luckily these guys are talented enough with their playing and songwriting that the message is portrayed clearly but the music is still fun and Birth A.D. don’t take it or themselves too seriously. For as serious as some of the material sounds, there is still a tongue – in – cheek attitude to it much like the mighty S.O.D. was able to perfect in the 80’s.
What is needed in good crossover thrash is the ability to smoothly take the punk side of rock and meld it with the faster and grimier melodies of thrash and where Birth A.D. are not breaking any new ground with this album they are certainly staying within the formula and creating a nice little spot for themselves in this genre. There is a lot of promise to this band and I Blame You is a solid full length release that showcases what is right with this band and their approach to thrash.
The album has 18 songs but clocks in at a little over 30 minutes long with each song averaging about two minutes. What I really like about this album and what you can really see on songs like the title track, 'This Scene Sucks', 'Popular War' and 'Blow Up the Embassy' is that Birth AD are not afraid to work a subject that most would consider off limits or at least controversial and they allow the punk side of their music to come through and not get lost in the galloping beats of thrash. They have just the right amount of attitude and melody to pull this type of material off and that is a testament to a band that really wants us to take them seriously as a crossover band.
In their opening track 'Mission Statement' they convey right away that they are not there to guide you in the ways of crossover thrash and how you are to react to them but to enlighten you with their music and lyrics and make you think on your own. As they allude to in the first song on the album, 'Mission Statement', no one should really have to tell you to get in the pit, you either do or you don’t either way they don’t care. The message throughout the album is that people need to learn to think for themselves and do what they feel is right and stop being societal automatons and as far as I am concerned Birth A.D. get this message across brilliantly.
