Crash - Endless Supply of Pain (1993)

Hailing from South Korea, Crash have never received much attention from Western audiences. Perhaps due to a lack of overly original or impressive songs, their anonymous status is nevertheless a waste, as they have definitely always had serious potential. Endless Supply of Pain is their first album consisting of head-on thrash and easily my favourite material by them, as they went down more...experimental paths...after this that didn't quite impress.

Crash are to S. Korea what Sepultura are to Brazil, or, to put it in a less flattering way, Crash are S. Korea's clone of Sepultura. From the accent-inflected, stentorian roar that could fool the biggest Max fan to the crisp bite of the guitars, Crash's sound is immediately familiar. They also borrow some ideas from Metallica and other big bands from that period, which gives enough variety to separate their songs, but it's quite hard to get away from the Sepultura comparisons.

Is that a problem, though? Not really. In fact, I rather enjoy these chaps on this album. There's a great vibe running throughout and the songs are pretty fun and catchy. The first two are easily the worst on the album, petering out before they're halfway done and wasting the riffs that they start so well on. Then the album steps it up with "My Worst Enemy," what could easily be argued as Crash's hit single, a rocker of a song with infectuous riffs and a some catchy vocalwork. Endless Supply of Pain continues from there on a strong note, although there is a passable, but inessential cover of "Smoke on the Water" strangely placed in the middle of the album, and they also have a bit of a Pantera on "At Finaly Day" (sans Philliness) which might explain the engrish song title.

As I've said already, the material here isn't the most original around - even my general thrash ignorance didn't keep me from recognizing plenty of the riffs - but still, this came out in 1993, in SOUTH KOREA, and it's a pretty fun album that's worth checking out for fans of Sepultura, at the least. Crash never really had the chance to take off and get picked up by the thrash scene (their current label is Sony, for fuck's sake), so it's also an interesting look at what a completely isolated band were able to put out.

Verdict: Win [4/5] (I dream of screaming for ice cream dreams)

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