Blathudah, a band that has long ago ceased to exist, is an obscure four-piece thrash metal band from Australia. They released no full-lengths (unfortunately), but this EP kicks some serious ass. It’s full-on searing thrash pretty much the entire way through. It’s a shame they were never able to release any full-lengths, this is some of the best obscure thrash that has cropped itself up in my music library.
“Spawnography” kicks off with “Terror Australis,” a perfect example of what thrash should always sound like. There’s a short amount of lead work in the beginning that starts the song off, and the fast, aggressive speed/thrash riffing immediately commences. Changes are seen quite often throughout their music, making it much more interesting. There’s crazy riffs all over the place, ranging from extremely fast to midpaced mosh riffs. “Terror Australis,“ at about the 2:09 mark, has an interesting burst of a heavy metal-ish riff, proving that they can pull off multiple styles in the same song.
The shouting vocals sound strangely smooth but also succeed in coming off as angry. They bellow in the background, uttering catchy vocal melodies every once in a while. But wait--there’s more, and again in “Terror Australis.” After the heavy metal-ish riff ends, a seriously groovy and dangerously headbangable slower riff commences at about 2:32, proving once more that their riffing and creativeness is top-notch. A strange song but also a worthy mention is “Portrait.” It starts off with war-like drums pounding in the background and the guitars emitting groovy riffs. This song doesn’t have vocals but, instead, funny voice-overs having weird conversations. Meanwhile the riffs in the background are chuggy and some even eerie. At the end you’ll hear some blistering screams that’ll make your skin crawl--an eccentric but great song. In addition, the drums on this EP don’t let up, being greatly energetic.
“Spawnography” is full of surprises. It has groovy, chuggy riffs (“Portrait”), speedy thrashers (“Bleatin'”), and even a punky song (“Freedom of Choice”) that actually isn’t half bad, albeit differentiating from the rest of the EP. The riffing is almost always exceedingly fast, and the bass bounces along in the background. In a time when thrash began its gradual descent into the lonely abyss, this is a shining beacon of hope, showing that it has never truly died.
88/100
-SmithMetal84
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