The newly released album by the young Spanish thrashers, BREATHLESS, took me back to the best years of Thrash Metal in the late 80s. This band proves that doing it old school is all worth it and should be done even more. The band's debut album, "Thrashumancy", under their local label Xtreem Music, is the foundation for a, hopefully, a long journey into the Metal world. Nevertheless, I have to imply that this debut was somewhat missed.

Before I will come to the hard part of what I think "Thrashumancy" could have been better with, first I have to congratulate the band on their overall production. Well in general maybe it wasn't the best thing I have ever heard, yet with such an addictive old school sound, I couldn't help myself from banging my head to some the tunes.Β Second, I think that BREATHLESS, as an old school figure in nowadays Metal has something to give because their approach is rather similar to CORONER, early SLAYER and early MEGDADETH. Although, I would have bet that if the majority of their tracks would have sounded like the band's I mentioned, this album would have sky rocketed.

I can't really say that "Thrashumancy" isn't a worthwhile album, because it is and it will cross a moshpit like wildfire. Even if the band's music isn't the most original thing you have probably heard, there is a good prospect on giving life to older moments. Tracks as "Nuclear Seas" and "Storming For Vengeance" were the devastating moments of the Spaniards. Mixing simple basic Thrash riffs with here and there complex passages, also with a crunchy and roaring set of vocals, led to the notion that this band has an infrastructure to work on. However, some tracks, especially "Anoxia", "Thrashumancy" and "Penelaster" presented us with a rather generic and even banal image.

Maybe what would have been better for these guys is to practise and improve their lead guitar breaks. Probably what I like most in Thrash Metal, besides the addictive riffages and strong tempo attacks, are the mayhemic and in a way technical solos and lead guitar leaks. BREATHLESS had maybe a small percentage of those. However, their efforts almost came down to zero because those sounded amateurish as hell. Sometimes I said to myself "Man, above this rhythm a solo should been firing up", especially in the instrumentals.

In overall, I think that BREATHLESS should take a notice when it comes to the importance of the lead guitar role and moreover, they should take on promising tunes as "Slaves Of The Masses", "Arrass Attack" and "Among Two Worlds Of Lies" and try to make the best of them because they are in the right track.