Release Date: September 8, 2009
Label:  Pulverised Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Swallow the Slaughter
2.  Snuff
3.  Firewater
4.  Float Face Down
5.  Fight or Flight
6.  Pitbulls in the Playground
7.  Parade of Two Legs
     (instrumental)
8.  Hook in Mouth
9.  I've Got the Fire
     (Montrose cover)
10.  Feeding Frenzy

Total playing time: 43:01

New Jersey’s Whiplash have pretty much always been underdogs in the history of thrash metal along with tons of bands like Atrophy, Toxik, and Sacred Reich.  They put out some seriously quality thrash metal back in the mid-late 80s in the criminally underrated “Power and Pain” debut and follow-up “Ticket to Mayhem”, but were largely overlooked and never really given the proper credit they were due, relegating them unfairly to somewhat of a thrash metal footnote while the frontrunners of the genre continued to release albums that, while popular, ventured further and further into the compost pile of mediocrity.  Eleven years since their last album, and a full twenty-five (!) years since their inception, Whiplash deliver an extremely solid comeback effort In Unborn Again.

Unborn Again shows a much matured Whiplash.  Less an all-out thrash-fest than their early works, the band instead delivers a couple of well written, mid-paced thrashers in “Snuff”, “Float Face Down”, and “Pitbulls in the Playground”.  Elsewhere, the Native American themed “Firewater” and the excellent “Fight or Flight” find the band journeying into bluesy, heavy hard rock territory.  The album is pristinely produced, and Tony Portaro’s at times Mustaine-esque snarl is in fine fighting form.  Memorable riffs and almost unfairly catchy choruses stick with you long after the albums over, in fact “Hook in Mouth” could very easily have been called “Hook in Brain” - it’s that infectious.  Only time will tell if folks will take a bit more of a notice of Whiplash this time around, but Unborn Again is a great comeback album for them, one that’s bound to please long time fans of the band as well as fans of thrash metal in general, or the more speed metal side of the NWOBHM coin.

Whiplash - Unborn Again

November 19, 2009

Reviewer: J. A. Burt

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