Band:	Rusted Dawn
Album:	The Black Tides Of War
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	March 30, 2010
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Prologue
02. Red Collar
03. Waking Streets
04. By The Hammer Of Thor
05. Derelict
06. Master Species
07. Stigmantis
08. Where Turns The Tide
09. I Am Becoming Death
10. The Black Tides Of War

You know what's awesome? Crossover. Do you know what's even better? Crossover done right. After Municipal Waste's massively un-aggressive 4th album, where the fuck do we turn now to get a fresh dose of hardcore punk mixed with metal? Bands like Winds Of Plague? Or Terror? Whose macho-jock attitude pretty much counter-acts the principles on which original hardcore was built on? We can count our lucky stars whenever an album of this level of quality comes along to remove the stigma that's starting to grow around the term "hardcore".

Basically, this is your archetypal crossover thrash album - simple, straightforward and (actually) massively aggressive - with a nice balance of professionalism and the oh-so-important D.I.Y. feel. Picture bands like Toxic Holocaust or Municipal Waste, with slightly less tongue-in-cheek lyrical content and you've got the general idea of what Rusted Dawn sounds like. I could sit here and try to describe this album for days and still come up short for words, it's just pure fucking thrash - but such simplicity is what makes this album so good. A fine balance of originality and keeping the straight-forward riffing appeal is nearly impossible to achieve at this day in age, but these guys pulled it off.

If your looking for something to "open your mind" or some other contrived crap that makes you feel like an intellectual, I suggest picking up an Ayreon album next time you're out shopping for tampons. Sure, challenging yourself and broadening your horizons is nice from time to time, but other times you just need to rock the fuck out. For that I prescribe The Black Tides Of War.