OK, to begin with, that’s some great artwork; I love the blending technique used, and the balance of colors helps keep it from feeling too cluttered, even with all the stuff packed into the imagery. That said, on to the music. Running fourteen tracks, with an average duration of slightly less than three minutes, My Regime’s new album plows inspiration out of the early thrash template as a way for front-man Spice (of Spiritual Beggars and Kayser) to vent some anger in a fresh environment.
After a short piece of mellow dissonance (“A Black Stone”), the band leaps into proper thrash, beating away on the drums and throwing quick-shred riffs left and right. It’s well-primed to draw listeners into head-banging, and while there’s an obvious debt to the early thrash waves, the band does a nice job of stirring in some of their own character while following the flail-and-shred blueprints, even if this is done done mostly through the handling of the vocals. Another point of modernity is found in the mixing, which eschews the muddying of channels that has dogged so many of the genre’s entries in the ’80s; instead, the separation is fairly crisp, though there’s still some acoustic interaction between the elements.
While it will hopefully draw the ears of thrash fans who’ve been hungering for an album fitting their tastes with some genuine vitality to its performance, I’m having a tough time imagining that this will draw too many new fans to the style. What might do the trick, though, is My Regime playing their material at multi-genre festivals, as the performances on Dogmas point to some serious fire waiting to be unleashed in off-the-cuff improvisations and extended riffage. Whether thrash is an old or new hat for your ears, I’d say this album is worth giving a shot to energize you on some afternoon when you’re feeling open-minded and willing to move around.