CHAINSAW, Permanent Menace (2011, Metalizer)

The skull:
This skull is so fucking tough his lower jaw is a god damned chainsaw! Sure, the background is ghastly and the Photoshop work is abysmal (the horns and the handle of the saw seem to occupy the same space, for instance) but I’m gonna let that all slide, because this artist wasn’t ‘shopping in a snake or some fire – he was ‘shopping in a motherfucking chainsaw. It’s utterly ridiculous, and also implausibly original, as we’ve never seen anything like this here at Skull HQ, which is a higher and higher bar to clear every day. Well played, Chainsaw art dude. Well played.

The music:
I expected bad Russian rethrash, but this is in fact some proper oldschool German thrash. Chainsaw were active in the 80s and released one full length before disbanding, but this disc is apparently an unreleased second album. Maybe these were just demos, but they sound good enough to have been final recordings for an album meant to come out in 1989, although I suspect the source for this was an old cassette of a rough mix or something, as the quality from track to track is not totally consistent. The music is fast and tight, sounding like a cross between Blackfire-era Sodom and Testament, which is a combination I wouldn’t have imagined before but works quite well. It’s neither technical nor barbaric, but something in between, and there’s no denying this was made in the 80s. I like it! This is one of the better lost thrash albums I’ve heard, and it makes me curious about the band’s earlier work, which features awesome cover art of a totally different sort, the kind of drawing that would make Vortex proud.
— Friar Johnsen