First is a leasurely series in which I discuss my first impressions of an upcoming release. This is not a critical review, but something pennede after one listen of promotional material or the full release.

A recurring theme with this site anymore is a focus on death and black metal releases. Truthfully, these styles are what mostly grace my inbox on any given day. While I do love the two, I love me some solid trash as well, which my diet has been sorely lacking as of late. So, whenever one creeps in as an unread promo invitation I typically gravitate towards it without much hesitation. With a little time to spare before family comes to visit I happened on The Art of a Maniac by Tymo waiting to be accepted. You clearly know what happened next…

I won’t lie, the artwork alone lured me into checking this self-released effort out. I’ve never heard of Tymo before, but apparently this Canadian based group formed in 2014 and has two full-lengths under their belt. Diving head first into this release without even that much knowledege before hand [as is the norm for these first impression articles], things kicked off with the instrumental track “Tymonicide”. I(t set up what kind of thrash release I was about to sample, though it made me think this was a one-man thrash instrumental release. Thankfully “Sanity Clause” proved that assumption wrong, and I couldn’t have been happier.

To be honest, while I dug these first two tracks, they didn’t really hit me as hard as “Mars Attacks”, which promptly got stuck in my skull. Immediately slamming on the gas, this one presented a gritty atmosphere to nicely compliment the b-grade comic series and movie of the same name. There’s also a good deal of aggressioin in the main verses that immediately reminded me of Cretin blended with some catchy crossover bridges to loet you breathe during invading chaos.

This is where my time with the album came to a screeching halt as my mother had come for a visit, and after twenty minutes of her going on about dead dogs again? Yeah, I wasn’t quite in the mood to dive back in to type up a review. I’ll definitely be diving into The Art of a Maniac soon, but so far I can safely say that it more than likely will get high praise, but that I found another kick ass Canadian thrash act I will need to add to the ever expanding library of metal. At this point I let the album run while prepping for the visit, but “Estrogenicide” confirms that the hostility doesn’t go anywhere, though “Age of Deception” did slow things down with some more complex riffs, a groove heavy foundation, and well done gang chants.

If you dig what you hear, then you can too with a pre-order via their official BANDCAMP. The Art of a Maniac drops on February 5th, 2022, and is available in digital and CD formats.

Track List:
1. Tymonicide
2. Sanity Clause
3. Mars Attacks
4. Estrogenocide
5. Age Of Deception
6. The Roy Parson Project
7. War Beneath The Skull
8. The Art Of A Maniac
9. Alcoholocaust

Digital review copy of this release provided by Tymo
via Asher Media Relations.