Top 10 Thrash Metal Albums of 2024 #9 Mexican Ape-Lord - Blunt Instrument

Xmas is upon us ya filthy animals! Time to do a Top 10 Thrash Metal Albums of 2024 and see how the year has treated us. I'll pick sh!t that I've listened to... a lot! Might not be perfect in all aspects but I'll always, always go for that messy spark over disciplined tasteless polish. Let's go!

If there's something I don't like its humour metal.

Mexican Ape-Lord is Heavy Metal with few twists of Thrash under the armpits. It snarls with bouts of rumble as much as it soars with wilful melodies, giving each of the 8 songs an expressive purpose. Blunt Instrument is anything but a straightforward mosh. In many ways its a concept album.

Story-heavy and best with a whiskey in hand. You'll quickly go:

"Wait what?" with a grin

Their sh!t relies on absurdity and flagging of very daily topics as well as pointing a finger to the whole human condition. Think about it this way and stuff starts to make sense: Mexican Ape-Lord is a stand up comedian. With a wry acceptance it looks at stuff and goes: "Huh. So that was a thing".

Mexican Ape-Lord stylin'!

Jon Hardy's stoically charismatic voice delivers, regardless of occasionally falling back to what one might call rhyming. That always comes across pretty... cheap. Now, it would be easy to write this one off as a joke from top to bottom, but alas! Kentucky Meat Shower for example is a properly made song in its own right regardless of the succulent name.

Day of the Hunt snatches you into a trip into the woods to hunt some hogs with some good ol' boys. The song sports a catchy mantra any band would be envious of - except it takes one Mexican Ape-Lord to contextualise stuff in such a ridiculous way.

I mean, frack everything if you can't laugh at sh!t

The music also displays some flippant characteristics. Some melodies are decidedly loopy and certainly something you wont find on the albums of "serious bands". It's not carnival music, but we're damn close at few instances. Then again, we have segments which are absolutely badass Thrash Metal.

Commentary on the social norms and especially political satire is at bare minimum. Not everything needs to be dead serious. Instead and in essence, this one is all about the highly taxing effort of getting up from the comfy couch and walking to the fridge to get a beer and you notice that the dog has shat the carpet again - and that you had stepped on it awhile ago and walked all over the house.

So, is Mexican Ape-Lord humour music?

I mean, of course. Does it make it worth less? Frack no. It just has to live with the fact that humour especially in Metal music is generally a big no-no. A properly frowned upon thing to have the audacity to exist - because Metal is some serious sh!t! I suppose the general consensus also would be that humour music isn't real, or that its made with minimum effort on the actual compositional side of things.

Blunt Instrument is a feel good album built on the same premises as the TV's great series Seinfeld - famously: its a TV show about nothing. When media pushes nothing but bad news and everything around you seems to be going to Hell in a handbasket, it can be a good idea to take a breather and think about absolutely nothing for a moment.

   THRASH-O-METER

★★★★☆ SONGWRITING

★★★★☆ THEMES

★★★☆☆ LONGEVITY

★★★★☆ PRODUCTION

★★☆☆☆ THRASHABILITY

SCORE:

★★★★☆ BADASS SH!T

(decimals are for weaklings)