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Rusted Dawn is a Thrash band hailing from New Brunswick which I recently saw play live here during their short Eastern Canadian tour.  For the past couple of weeks I've been playing this EP (the band's first), and I've finally figured out what's wrong with it.  Unlike their live delivery, the sound on Toxic Shock just isn't all that great.  It's definitely better than demo quality, but it just doesn't convey the power behind that four nice little slabs of Thrash present on this EP.  The drums often sound rather thin, and the guitar sound feels like it's coming from behind the wall.  The vocals can also sound a little flat here and there, with only a few highlights to be found.  So, to really enjoy this, one has to crank up the sound a few notches and really, really pay attention.  And that pays off in the end...

Mid-80s Bay Area-inspired and some hints of crossover riffage is the norm here - mostly "clean Thrash" (as opposed to the more underground, "violent" German and US Thrash from that era) that's overall quite catchy, albeit a little repetitive at times, especially on the instrumental opening track (which nevertheless has its moments of greatness - lots of air guitar material here folks.)  The guitars reveal a little bit of "Metallica meets Megadeth" here and there, but the compositions here are more tame, sticking mostly to a mid-paced style with very little actual "fast" songs, but this is still pretty cool Thrash, and of course these guys have thrown in a healthy dose of invigorating solos that fire things up when you least expect it.  The vocal style is clean, a little on the harsh side, just what's warranted for this style of Thrash.   One little annoyance, the last song has a rather long silence followed by a "bonus track" which really doesn't add anything, just the guys screwing around (kind of funny the first time, but that's it) - well, you know me, I hate it when bands do that, especially on a short EP. Toxic Shock may not be perfect, but it does hold some little gems.  The band's live delivery proves that most of its shortcomings are more a matter of production that needs a serious kick in the balls (mostly addressed in its successor, Red Collar.)