Drünken Bastards – Horns of the Wasted (2010)

It’s been a while since we have heard a band be as effective in 20 minutes as the Drünken Bastards manage to be with “Horns of the Wasted”. With a brutal mixture of Thrash Metal with Punk elements and a few Black Metal hints here and there, the band does a great job in crafting small, concise, and effective songs that will rock you sideways.

Release in the USA on Hell’s Headbandgers, “Horns of the Wasted” is a great blast in the past, when bands where still having fun and freely rocking out tunes that mashed up several genres and they did not give a shit if people liked them or not. The overall Punk influences are very high in this release, and in songs like “Alcoholic Big Tits” the band goes all-out Punk on us. But they quickly regain their Metal-form with their cover of Barbatos “Prophecy of the Evening Star”, a song that sounds extremely Heavy Metal for this album.

Pretty much all the songs of “Horns of the Wasted” keep dabbling between Thrashy riffs, Punk-ish drums and a very old-school vocal sound. As you can expect this band does not claim to be anything revolutionary or anything, they play an older ‘genre’ with perfect clarity (thanks to the great production) and kick-ass while doing it. We usually don’t like albums like this, but Drünken Bastards have managed to utilize too many ‘classical’ Metal elements into this package to not be liked by Metalheads.

With influences from Mötorhead, Toxic Holocaust, and others, the guitar work is very diverse and interesting sounding, never sounding like a complete rip-off, but giving you that ‘I’ve kind of heard that before’ feeling. The drumming changes from Punk rhythms to more basic Metal sections, never being dull for a minute. For a band that has only been around for 6 years, they sound like they were formed in the 80’s.

If you like old-school Thrash Metal, some ‘harsher’ Punk, or just all out aural assaults of old-school Metal brilliance, then you will take this album to the grave with you. “Horns of the Wasted” might not be for the purists or for people looking for the next big thing, but if you like something quick and powerful to start your mornings with, definitely buy this album.

Release: August 31st, 2010

Country: Hungary