Reviewing works from Thrash Metal bands is always good news. The bad news is you can rarely come even close to the originals writing history in the 80s. BATTALION is a real case where you have a nice album banging your head to but do not remember this much once the disc stops spinning. Nah, sounds mean. Let's rephrase: "Underdogs" is a nice album to obtain as long as you really feel the reincarnation of Thrash Metal music via today's bands like EVILE, FUELD BY FIRE or WARBRINGER was the proof Thrash Metal cannot be dead.

BATTALION released their "The Fight For Metal" debut in 2006 and signing to Silverwolf Productions resulted in a brand new album coming hard this year. Speed/Thrash Metal with enough attitude and enough of the clichés of the genre is the case here: all songs have the energy and non-conformism needed to pass their message and you'll have a nice time banging your head to old-school cuts like...all of them! Speedy riffs, shouting refrains, mid-pace moshing bridges, angry vocals and some pounding rhythm section seeing on future...BATTALION blend owes a lot to the Bay Area scene (primitive METALLICA, early MEGADETH, DEATH ANGEL) plus the non-evil side of Germany (KREATOR, TANKARD, DARKNESS), not to mention the legacy of Britain's ONSLAUGHT. More or less, you can see what style of music we're dealing with here, anyway.

There's a certain traditional Heavy Metal setting lying underneath most of the songs in "Underdogs", for the more classic metallers to fancy, but if we had to pick one and only category of the Metal book to file this band/album this would no-question be the Thrash Metal page. With melodic dual leads where needed, with deep and vicious vocals by Silvan Etzensperger and some really striking riffs by the guitar duo of the band "Underdogs" can serve as a fitting choice for your evergoing Thrash Metal needs. Do not expect something more inspiring, though.

P.S.: "Stalingrad" is an impressive 8-minute hymn bringing forth a more epic BATTALION profile.