When you see the name, Ultra-violence, and the cover art (handled by Megadeth artist Ed Repka), you’d be hard pressed not to guess as to what ‘operation misdirection’ has in store. None-more-brutal thrash is the order of the day and this Italian rabble, ably led by vocalist Loris Castiglia, are more than up to the task of frying your synapses with their rapid-fire riffs and scabrous vocals. The final part of a trilogy begun some five years ago with the band’s debut (‘privilege to overcome’), ‘operation misdirection’ sees the band hitting a peak with eight grueling thrash gems. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Simone Mularoni (a long-time friend of the band), ‘operation misdirection’ shows that the time the band have put in supporting the likes of Discharge, Rotting Christ and Tokyo Blade has paid off and the music here is both technically devastating and musically diverse.
Opening track (and lead single) ‘cadaver decomposition island’ is a perfect case in point. Clocking in at a lengthy six minutes, the track opens with a ferocious riff offset by evil, stabbing bass and fret-board-wrecking solos. However, it’s not that straight forward and just as you think you’ve pinned the band down, they head off down a melodic side-road that is as unexpected as it is welcome. Yet, for all the depth of composition, it’s still a track destined to snap your neck in myriad places and the band never forget their sole purpose of setting the adrenal glands to work even when indulging in prog-infused flights of fancy. In stark contrast, ‘welcome to the freakshow’ does not even make the three-minute mark and its taut groove is all the more potent for it emergence from a subtle, acoustic passage. Reminiscent of Anthrax circa ‘among the living’, ‘welcome to the freakshow’ is old-school thrash with a modern-edge and it kicks a fairly serious amount of ass. Another longer song follows in the form of ‘my fragmented self’, a track that digs into the mean tempo shifts of ‘And Justice for all’-era Metallica, cross-breeds it with Megadeth and throws in a touch of Mudvayne weirdness for good measure. The first half of the album draws to its close with the searing sounds of ‘The acrobat’, a good-time thrash ‘n’ roll song that sounds like Mega-Dave unleashing six-string hell all over Motorhead before heading off into melodic territory so cross-threaded with solos that air guitarists will lose their freaking minds over it all.
Dealing with the crippling fear of the brain-dead that is ‘nomophobia’ (yep, there is a word for people who panic when separated from their mobile zombification device), Ultra-violence pour scorn on society with a vitriol that threatens to burn through the speakers. Super-fast, super-brutal… yeah, there are too few bands really tearing apart the fabric of normality with such utter disdain and it rules. Now, I looked at the title of the next track, ‘money for nothing’, and I thought to myself “nah… surely not?!?” but yes, this is indeed a cover of the Dire Straits mega-hit and, in the grand tradition of Children of Bodom, the song is rendered as violent and unhinged as a street punk, drunk on methylated spirits and screaming in the road at 2 am. Furious, funny and with a groove you never knew existed, ‘money for nothing’ is a bizarre interlude amidst all the fire and fury, but it’s fun nonetheless. As if to give the final track some distance, ‘the stain on my soul remains’ is a short, neo-classical interlude that paves the way for the lengthy album closer, ‘shining perpetuity’, a pure-bred thrash monster that sees the record out on a dazzling, riff-guzzling high. If you’re not sweat-drenched and exhausted at the end of it all, you’re doing it wrong.
The CD, aside from the awesome artwork, boasts two bonus tracks, ‘Burning through scars’ and ‘spell of the moon’, both tracked live at Domination Studio. The opening track of 2015’s ‘deflect the flow’, ‘burning through scars’ is delivered with additional venom, the band delivering the complex battery of coruscating riffs with barely-concealed glee. ‘Spell of the moon’, meanwhile, harks all the way back to the band’s 2013 debut, the live version edging into slayer territory as Loris spits out the lyrics with causal disdain.
Thrash metal, at its most potent, has always incorporated the devil-may-care spirit of punk into its matrix and Ultra-violence have done exactly that, deftly combining technical chops with social commentary and a palpable swivel-eyed rage. Offering nods to the big four, Ultra-Violence benefit from being unafraid to take their own path and there is a progressive ebb and flow to the music that recalls Metallica at their most grandiose. Whilst the tongue-in-cheek Dire Straits cover may have been better served as a cheeky bonus track, it’s impossible to argue with the depth and quality found elsewhere and ‘operation misdirection’ brings the band’s first trilogy to a suitably breathless end. 8
