Italy's DRASTIC SOLUTION are so unashamedly in love with old school Thrash Metal / crossover that they probably spend every waking hour of every waking day wearing denim vests emblazoned with patches of the Big Four.

On their first album "Thrashers", they actually sing something about hitting the lights for Christ's sake. Ooh and they have a song called "Rising Death"- are they sure it's not a Creeping type of demise instead? Why don't they just "Kill Em All" and get it over and done with it? OK, I'll stop with the references and get on with it although track 5 "Suck Me Licia" has definitely nicked its riffs from METALLICA'S debut.

Alright, to be fair to DRASTIC SOLUTION, I like the vocals. The singer has a gargled-with - razor blades quality to his voice that is more reminiscent of hardcore punk shouting than straight-ahead thrash vocals. The vocals are the best thing about the album and the most stand-out quality in my opinion. Also to be fair, I like their speed and their energy and the production does sound pretty dirty.

Then I read the lyrics...track two "AssAssault", is erm, well, just about that. It includes lines such as 'breaking the ass' of whatever unlucky girl the protagonist is fucking. The chorus repeats the phrase "AssAssault" a number of times.... Wow, and I thought romance was dead... And did I mention that other song titles are "Silent Fart" and "Big Jerk"? This band actually make MUNICPAL WASTE look subtle.

Anyway, my problem is this is just such a generic album and each track follows the same formula by and large. The band obviously have tonnes of enthusiasm but all of the songs bleed into one another and bleed into moments from Thrash Metal's hey-day. If the band carried down the comedy route, maybe that would work for them. In the meantime, they need to find their own sound.