Violent Playground
Thrashin Blues

THRASH ZONE: EPISODE III

The Violent Playground is one of the many "thrash" metal bands that ended up forgotten without ever having serious opportunities; the fact is that they deserved much more than their peers. In 1988, they were able to create an unparalleled blend of thrash metal, hard rock, and especially (blues?!) that (needless to say) didn't open the doors to fame for them at all.

These five guys (whose real names cannot be found online, known only by stage names) lived their musical experience exclusively within the underground scene for a relatively short time (about three years), without any chance to emerge in the slightest (at least to achieve the popularity of groups like Tankard, Razor, and so on). For this series of reasons, the group is one of the most ignored within its environment (those who know bands like Legion from Spain, Taurus from Brazil, Znowhite from the USA, NWOBHM's Girlschool understand what I mean). And their Thrashin Blues is more of a collector's item than metalhead material. The only link the Playground has with the world outside the underground is the album cover: created by the famous Ed Repka, the same who drew for Megadeth, Municipal Waste, Venom, Toxik, Vio-lence, and others.

It's no coincidence that they deserved more than many other bands of the time: their only publication is a true masterpiece. Frankly, I don't find a single excessive derivation, a single plagiarized note; you can hardly even hear the influences from the usual genre epigones, but the sound is typically thrash, accompanied by contamination ranging from blues to classic rock, even to hard rock, and even sound effects (orgasms in Doctor Feelfine, vocalizations in Mr. Dandy), clips from adult films, and in the last minutes of 21st Century Bluesman, the notes of John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chilloun echo. The production isn't too raw for a record like this, made of captivating riffs and solos that haven't been heard since the days of Kill 'Em All. The originality of the product is evident from the very first spectacular seconds of the title track, a true homage to blues music. The muddled bass lines in I Hate My Boss and Play to Kill are formidable; it’s the kind of stuff that makes you tip your hat. Lyrics speak of low social classes and metal, sung by (Manny, sharp but completely different from colleagues like Araya, Sanders, Sabin) and the frenzied rhythms of Bobby Sheenan (drums), the guitar (fast and fun) plots are worth the whole price of the album.

Unable to repeat themselves and strained by the harsh failure of the album, the Playground disbanded shortly after, and with them, that kind of explosive mix of "blues fusion" came to an end.