Diamond Plate – Generation Why?

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The quality of many of the recent thrash-revival bands is certainly questionable. There’s a lot of great bands, sure, but then there’s also an awful lot of rubbish. Unfortunately, Illinois’s Diamond Plate prove that they are closer to the latter group than the former. Their debut album for Earache, Generation Why? really fails to impress. There’s nothing special about the band musically, it’s average, slightly groovy thrash metal. There’s certainly enough of a solid production and some general understanding of the genre to get the listener lightly headbanging, but the songs themselves are terribly unexciting, and none of the riffs stand out. The worst offense though is the singer. Harsh vocalists definitely belong in thrash metal – there’s certainly a contingent of thrash fans who’d say otherwise, but there’s plenty of proof that harsh vocals work well with the genre. However, Diamond Plate’s singer just sounds like his voice is struggling. Harsh, shouted vocals are normally able to superbly convey feelings of anger, aggression, horror, etc. over the music, that’s why they work – here the vocals just convey the sound of a throat problem stopping the vocalist from shouting properly. He sounds like he’s lost his voice. That doesn’t make for good thrash, and given the material is a bit weak anyhow, Generation Why? is an album you can happily miss.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Quick.Play Reviews, Thrash Metal, Diamond Plate