Trainwreck Architect - Traits Of The Sick
Montreal, Canada seems to be the breeding ground for fresh talent over recent months, certainly the material that has come my way for review. Trainwreck Architect is a thrash band, although they have more to offer than pure thrash. Granted, Jeff Waters of Annihilator features on a guest solo during the track ‘As Killers Breathe’, but I can hear some Cowboy’s era Pantera and admittedly a lot of later Anthrax, certainly their 90’s and 00’s output with a touch of Death Angel, especially the vocals. This comes from the charismatic singer Simon Ouellet who fills each song some with emotive responses and powers ahead with a full chalice of energy via the lyrics with a genuine level of consistency. Musically I get a real cool vibe, I don’t call this style groove metal, to me that’s just wrong and lazy, but there is an earthy thrash tone to most songs coupled with the inclusion of a few standard heavy metal beasts breathing fire once in a while.
The artwork does not look like your typical cover for someone in this field or sub-genre, but that should not put you off. Image may be one thing, but this is a real metal experience and I have read that live this is very much the case by getting the thumbs up by people with such a stature as Vinnie Appice (Kill Devil Kill, Dio, Black Sabbath etc.).
‘Dream Pariah’ is infectious it possesses something wholesome, but a track like ‘The Narcissist’ is an absolute perfect thrash attack. All in all, Trainwreck Architect hang around the fringes of the thrash scene without going totally into it with both feet, they enhance their sound with some modern touches and have mastered their recorded sound. This is a rather decent album and worth anybody’s money.