With a name like THE SOURGER, a label called Stay Heavy, and cover art that could serve quite nicely as wall decorations in Hell, "Blind Date With Violence" was either destined to be amazing or a complete joke. I was not really expecting middle of the road here, but that appears to be the case. This album is familiar like a bruise you've forgotten about and it's all you can do not to poke at it and find out why it's still around.

From start to end, THE SCOURGER play the sort of no frills Thrash that was popularized by AT THE GATES, THE HAUNTED, CARNAL FORGE, SOILWORK, et al and well before them, DESTRUCTION, KREATOR, and SODOM. And that is just the point. Everything, absolutely every single progression, arpeggio, breakdown, vocal pattern and even vocal style has been done before and quite frankly done to death. There is plenty of meat on the bone here, and technically no issues with the competency of THE SOURGER. The album stays heavy as promised, but interest wanes about two songs in. "Blind Date With Violence" unfortunately suffers from coming a few years late to be truly revolutionary or relevant, considering the originators of this offshoot of pure Thrash - I suppose it could be called Melodeath or Thrash-a-bye or something - have long since moved on from the form or found ways to inject life into its stagnant and stinking corpse.

This album just falls short and makes me want more coffee and the new DARK TRANQUILLITY. Originality is not dead, it's just damn hard to remain unaffected by the ADD-core that the more mainstream Metal scene is pandering lately. Thrash is underground, and this Thrash is pristine and well done. I heard it 15 years ago and, well, the standard was higher than THE SCOURGER have reached. Better luck next time, but once again, the artwork owns.