(Album Review) MOTORASTOLA - Working Class Metal

Release date: August 2, 2021 (Independent)

Written by Jeff Tighe

Coming at you from Spain, Motorastola have unleashed their first full-length release on the world: Working Class Metal, and the title is apt. This album is made up of songs that are metal, with enough working class anger to come across as having a punk influence, especially given that the songs clock in at an average length of a bit over 2 minutes.

The album itself is 9 songs over 20 minutes. But getting the album from Bandcamp resulted in an additional 4 songs and 9 minutes as re-mixes of the four songs from the bands 2018 EP were also downloaded (it is unclear to the Mighty Decibel if this is the case every time).

What is immediately apparent are the changes in style that Motorastola have undergone over the last three years. The older songs from the EP have a more punk feel to them, being more chaotic than the metal sound of the 9 songs from the album proper. The EP lead vocals of Astola Plissken are also rougher, and quite frankly fit the band better. On the album songs Plissken sings the (mostly) English vocals in a cleaner fashion and they come across as a bit flat, although the final album song, "Working Class Metal" ironically sees the band revert to punk form.

The main album tracks are mostly speed metal ditties, blasts of raw riffs without much in the way of subtlety. There aren't any ballads in this batch of working class songs, with "Memories Are Blades" coming closest to melodic, but really falling well short of that mark. Overall the main strength of the album is in the catchy song writing. The tunes are memorable and aren't just in one ear and out the other when the music stops. The best album tracks are "Bilbiko Mubleak", "Demolition Derby", "The Day of the Bitch" and the aforementioned title track, but really they are all pretty damned good. (7.5)