It was my sometimes drinking buddy Johnny Vomit who first made me aware of these guys. Goofy ass crossover thrashers from Louisville, KY armed with a wild stage show, numbskull lyrics and…best of all…sizzling thrash riffs to turn your spine to jelly!
Having never seen them live, I can’t speak to that part of their repertoire, but when I saw song titles like ‘Garth, Let My Family Go’, ‘My Favorite Color Is Pizza’ and ‘Tater Tot Eyes’, I got some uneasy flashbacks to the metalcore of the early 2000s, which wrote the book on idiotic “ironic” song titles. Well, BELUSHI SPEED BALL is something more akin to D.R.I., MUNICIPAL WASTE and ANTHRAX in sound. These guys nail the crossover thrash sound right to the wall. Any thrash album is only as good as its riffs and there are some monsters here. ‘My Favorite Color Is Pizza’ starts things off the right way with a blast of D.R.I. inspired mayhem and if you are one of those guys with no time for “fun” thrash, there’s the door. ‘Eels And Escalators’ is a shockingly brilliant song…well constructed with some pretty advanced guitar playing…and ‘Get To The Point’ is almost the polar opposite…short, direct and living up to its name.
There’s quite a few “mosh” riffs in the ANTHRAX style found on Stellkira as well…’Griffith Did Literally Everything Wrong’ and ‘The Accountant’s Due (Stab The Katana)’ being two great examples. You see what I mean about eye-rolling lyrics and song titles. Yes, I do think some of that metalcore mentality is here as well, but the vocalist has such a mean pit bull snarl, everything sounds dead serious. Which only makes it more funny. I love the line “Garth Brooks is a serial killer!” from ‘Garth, Let My Family Go’.
Vomit told me live is where BELUSHI SPEED BALL really needs to be experienced. I will check them out. For now, I’d say the thrash revival finally has its “silly” band taken care of.
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality
BELUSHI SPEED BALL
Stellkira
Independent