Country (for what it’s worth): Pakistan
Members: Faiq Ahmed (guitars), Daniyal Buksh Soomro (bass & vocals), Omair Soomro (live drums)
Recording: ShockStudio
Duration: 27:34
Genre: Thrash Metal
Introduction: Tabahi (which means ‘destruction’ in Urdu) is a duo from Karachi in Pakistan, and active for fifteen years. After an EP and a full-length in respectively 2012 and 2014, the band did not record something official, except for several digital singles. And now they have returned with a new EP, Thrash For Justice. And as the title might suggest, socio-political topics are still the main theme behind these guys’ thrashing sonic violence.
Content: well, as from the very beginning one cannot deny the fact that these guys pay tribute to the early years; and then I am referring to the Eighties especially, and maybe the very early Nineties too. Tabahi bring intense, dynamic, rhythmic and technical Thrash Metal that finds its roots in both the European (read: Teutonic) and North-American (read: Bay Area) scene. Their stuff is, for the better part, fast – and then I am talking about everything from up-tempo to speed-up – yet maintaining a certain level of melodicism. These guys’ old-schooled material consists of melodic structures (*) and a fierce, pounding rhythm section (with a magnificent leading role for the drum performance).
(*) the spine of each ‘song’ has a rhythmic-harmonious structure, yet it gets injected by several intriguing lead parts (guitar-based) and quite some mind-blowing guitar-solos, from time to time delving into the regions of duelling grandeur or tremolo-picking delicacy.
The main voices are quite ‘nasal’ in a certain high-pitched sense. These voices too refer to the scene from thirty – forty years ago, with that guttural effect. Besides, Tabahi come with some rather blackened screams, some anthemic shots, some deeper grunts and some rougher shouts. Here I do have to make a honest, objective remark, however. The mix does put the vocal side little too much into the ‘front’; I mean, the vocals might have been mixed way too prominent, too explicit, in front of the instrumentation. It’s not such big deal, yet the lead and rhythm instrumentation seem little inferior from time to time when the vocal parts take over the game. Yet, then again, it is not a bothering aspect; just an innocent reflection by undersigned.
…which easily brings me to the overall sound-quality. While the song-writing, performing attitude and conceptual result refer profoundly to the Old School, the production sound very modern. I am not sure whether this is a ‘problem’ or not; that’s something you have to find out for yourself. I think that some more ‘roughness’ in sound-construction would strengthen the ‘primal’ character that typifies this specific niche. I am not saying that it does bother; and once again, this isn’t but a personal opinion. But that edge of rusty, sandy harshness that did define the sound of the glorious late-Eighties sort of gets assailed by this surgical neatness. Yet as said: this isn’t but a minor detail of negativity.
Conclusion: Tabahi’s Thrash For Justice might not reinvent the scene. Yet then again, the result, i.e. the composition, execution and general attitude, sounds like aural erotica in a thrash-minded ear. Those who can appreciate everything in between (early) Anthrax, (early) Metallica, (early) Kreator, or Sodom, Exodus, Judas Priest (!) (several leads; not vocal-wise), Overkill, Tankard – I guess you might get the picture – must pay attention and give this sh*t a try!
https://cdnrecords.com/label-artists/tabahi/
https://cdnrecords.bandcamp.com/album/tabahi-thrash-for-justice
https://tabahi.bandcamp.com/album/thrash-for-justice-2