Taste

(Bacteria Sour)
by Joshua Brown

Frantically inspired scratchings and wailings from the scuff zone. Pushead was well established as the classiest man in thrash music with his Pusmort label, and Bacteria Sour is the continuation of his legacy. Here are 74 minutes of ostensibly the best of underground aural abrasion, primarily from the USA and Japan. Some of it is truly exceptional, like Tokyo’s Evil Powers Me (who are making their world debut on this comp), Pushead’s own Septic Death, and politico crust standards Final Conflict. There’s also unreleased/out-of-print stuff by folks like Rocket From the Crypt and Pitchblende. It may be an unfounded accusation (I’ll make it anyway, though I won’t name names), but a couple of the inclusions on the comp sounded like favors for friends rather than real thrash champions. Taste does, however, come out on top overall. Describing it with the adjective “worthwhile” wouldn’t be doing the consumer an injustice.