BLOODRIDE "idiocracy" While the main competence of Great Dane Records might be within the death metal sector they also have some nice thrash albums to offer once in a while. One good example for this is their newest output by Finnish thrash maniacs Bloodride. These lads are no newbies and “Idiocracy” is their fourth full length. They all have experience in various other bands and projects, but four of the five guys have been with Bloodride since the beginning in the year 2000. And this shows as we are talking about a band performing like a well-oiled unit and being confident about what kind of music they want to present to the metal world. There are no surprises and Bloodride don’t see the need to go for any half-assed experiments. Instead they throw 39 minutes of relentless and traditional thrash at the listener so fans of that style need to take a listen. Of course they are drawing influences from classic bands such as Testament, Slayer or Overkill, but also have some of the freshness that more recent acts of the modern thrash scene like Municipal Waste and Violator going on. The main ingredients come in form of aggressive riffs, fast drums and a duel between angry vocals and delicious lead guitars, to create a raw thrash metal sound from the old days without coming across too dusty. Of course you could start to argue that bands like Bloodride could try to offer more originality and use their unquestionable talent and inspiration to create something with a more distinct DNA, but when the music is played and performed with such enthusiasm and perfection I personally do not complain but instead enjoy the old school goodness. That being said Bloodride have enough variation to offer to keep things interesting enough. While songs like opener “Rapid Fire” gallop out of the gates and with fast chords and classic shouts others like “Stranger Roots” have a slightly groovier mid-tempo groove. Sometimes like in “Fleshless” they even border on death metal territory, but overall they stay within the boundaries of classics defined by the heroes from the Bay Area back in the eighties. The guitar playing is outstanding with the two axe-men Simo and Teemu doing their best to give us a nice mixture of crushing riffs and loads of lead harmonies and a few crazy soloing passages. The drumming is also on point and it is obvious that we are talking about great musicians. While most of the time driving along at breakneck speed and barely letting up Bloodride are able to deliver smooth transitions and tempo changes with ease. The album also benefits from a killer production that affords every instrument the clarity and separation to be heard, whilst providing a meatiness and power to make sure that each of the musicians brings something to the fight. The whole package is perfectly polished with the cover artwork also being a highlight so getting the digipack should be the way to go. If I had any kind of criticism to dispense, it would be that perhaps a tad more variety across “Idiocracy” and the one absolutely killer tune would put Bloodride into the absolute elite level. That being said I can only recommend to any serious thrash fan to order this album.