Thrash comes in a variety of flavors, even if the metalsphere hasn’t been quite as maniacally devoted to concocting sub-genre labels as it has in the case of death metal, black metal, or just about everything else. So, to say that Sabotage is a thrash band only goes so far in giving you a sign-post to the direction of their music. Even to add the further data point that they claim influence from Bay Area thrash doesn’t tell the whole story.

As you’ll discover through our premiere of this Indian quintet’s debut EP in advance of its August 3rd release, they’re definitely skilled at cooking up the kind of high-voltage riffs that are capable of getting a mosh it into a full froth. But this isn’t “party thrash”. Although you certainly can party hard to this music, these dudes are bone-breakers, with a penchant for brutal grooves, and an equal flare for anthemic melody, spectacular soloing, and politically charged lyricism, all of which elevates their fierce music above a lot of the been-there, done-that, beer-soaked sloppiness that we also call thrash. Continue reading »