Review: Tumourboy “Damaged System”

Tumourboy “Damaged System”
Witches Brew

I could tell a little white lie and say that I have a thing for bands that come from countries not normally associated with Metal. But if the truth be told, it’s an obsession of mine. And I have to say, I’m absolutely gutted that I’m wasn’t the one that discovered China’s Tumourboy.

That honour goes to Witches Brew and here they re-issue the bands debut album, which was only released in China before, via Mort Production. And they’ve very nicely tagged on a couple of bonus tracks as well.

Now I’ve got my jealous streak out of my system, I’d better tell you about the music.

I think three little words will do the job for me on this album. Bay Area Thrash. Yep, these Chinese Thrashers are in full on Bay Area mode, and man, what a fucking great album it is.

Frontman, Qu Jiashu aka Tree Tumour, has a high pitched voice that metaphorically curls up at the end of his delivery, very similar to Nuclear Assault’s John Connelly. And apart from that comparison, they provide the normal gamut of gang shouts, ass ripping solos and frantic riffing. It’s genuinely everything you could ever want from a Thrash album.

Special praise goes to whoever did the production. I’ve heard many Metal bands from places like Bangladesh, for example, where bands have had to use producers who have never produced anything Metal before, and the music normally suffers because of this. That’s not the case here as this is crystal clear and very loud indeed.

And it’ll be interesting to see how the band do with this album. It sits very comfortably with anything from the 80s or 90s, and the added twist of the bands location of Beijing should add an extra level of interest.

So raise a glass of beer, or even Baijiu, to these guys and welcome them on their quest for World domination. And let’s hope they get to play somewhere like Wacken in the future, as this album really does deserve to be heard by the masses.

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