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In my opinion, Thrash Metal is a genre that does not tolerate a ton of innovation. That makes it somewhat difficult for Thrash bands to separate themselves from the pack, and everyone ends up sounding like everyone else. That is the fate of Spain's Paranoia and their 2002 release, Ready to Explode. They certainly don't really sound like Metallica, Venom or Exodus as their Myspace page asserts. What they do sound like is the countless other Thrash bands from the countless Thrash compilations released over the years.

The songs are fairly generic, mid-paced and carried by some standard Thrash riffing. The mix is very low-fi (to be fair, Ready to Explode was independently released) and muddy. The only things that stand out are the too loud snare drums and the barely passable vocals of Zalo 666. He's really putting his heart into it and the shouted style isn't necessarily bad, but he doesn't always hit all the notes and his command of English isn't great. On tracks like "Destroy Your Ears" and "Good to You" he sings "Destroy JORE ears" and "Good to JOO" which is kind of distracting. Some may like this "rough around the edges" delivery, but not me.

Ready to Explode has its flaws (poor mix, annoying vocals and uninspired song writing) and the band could really use some label help to sort things out. There is potential here, it's just not very obvious on Ready to Explode.