Municipal Waste are the premier crossover thrash band from Richmond, Virginia, and for most of their existence has been composed of the core quartet of vocalist Tony Foresta, guitarist Ryan Waste (Richard Ryan Joy), bassist Land Phil (Phillip Hall), and living legend, drummer Dave Witte. And despite the fact we are ranking their albums today, we must make it clear that Municipal Waste doesn’t have a bad album. They clearly worship ’80s genre icons like Agnostic Front, S.O.D., and D.R.I., and their whole lizard-brain-fun atmosphere has been keeping that scene alive. They’re sometimes labeled “party thrash” because many of their songs are about drinking, partying, or both. It’s like if Andrew W.K.’s “I Get Wet” had a child and that child grew up into a gleeful trailer park shitheel. Indeed, the band’s song “Shredneck” offers a succinct thesis: “Sick riff compositions and mass graves of beer / Leaves a harsh decimation of thousands of ears.” Crack open a Keystone, and let’s break shit.
7. Waste ’Em All (2003)
“Waste ’Em All” is pure, uncut crossover thrash: 16 songs in 17 minutes. None of that poser shit like catchy riffs or quality production. Municipal Waste’s debut is played almost sarcastically fast, as if they tried speedrunning their own songs. Same goes for Foresta’s lightspeed delivery, which is best described as “yelling in cursive.” The album blurs together like a night of binge drinking, so trying to recall any portion of it 10 minutes after hearing it is about as fruitful as trying to recall last night’s debauchery the following morning. Lyrically, the band mines obvious territory—violence, monsters, drinking, metalhead delinquency—with high school humor: “I couldn’t help but notice that the band I came to see / Was playing to the speed of motherfucking Kenny G.” But don’t let that fool you: wordplay like “Doormen don’t charge us / ’Cause they’re scared that we’ll charge them” hints that they’re (slightly?) smarter than they let on.
Play it again: “Drunk As Shit” and “Mountain Wizard,” maybe
Skip it: a valid option
6. The Fatal Feast (2012)
The band’s fifth full-length is kinda disappointing. The album’s good-not-great quality isn’t a problem on its own; it is a problem, however, when compared to the preceding three. As such, “The Fatal Feast” feels like a step backward. There aren’t any real misses here, but there isn’t anything outstanding, either. There’s still amusement to be had, though. There’s a story of a space voyage that turns into cannibalism: “Let’s kill the captain and stuff our face / He led us all to starve here—fatal feast.” There’s another about infiltrating a religion as a prank, only to have it backfire: “They’re not human, they’re possessed / The more I’m learning, the sicker it gets / Those who seek their secrets are hunted for fun / Not blood into wine, they turn wine into blood.” Even lesser Waste albums are good for smashing (empty?) beer bottles, so there’s that.
Play it again: “New Dead Masters” and “Residential Disaster”
Skip it: “The Monster With 21 Faces” and “12 Step Program”
5. Slime and Punishment (2017)
Municipal Waste’s sixth album is their first as a five-piece. So much for symmetry. Here, they’re joined by former Cannabis Corpse guitarist Nick Poulos, who adds some slick and showy leadwork to the band’s sound. (The instrumental “Under the Waste Command” seems to exist solely for this reason.) Otherwise, the songwriting remains unaltered, so we get another 28 minutes of Neanderthal adrenaline. Lyrically, “Slime and Punishment” is made for The Hard Times audience: the main themes are posturing, metalheads, and fighting/property destruction. Foresta also gives rap punchlines a try with lines like “I got more patience than a hospital” and “Your knife is duller than the tales you told.” He also recounts “Death Proof” with skilled brevity (“Twisted carnage appearing as an accident / Perfectly planned, diabolical degenerate”), suggesting that he may have a second career as a hyperactive movie-recapper if this whole crossover thing doesn’t work out.
Play it again: “Shrednecks” and “Amateur Sketch”
Skip it: “Parole Violators”
4. Hazardous Mutation (2005)
The band’s sophomore effort contains stuff like memorable riffs, intelligible vocals, and decent production—in other words, a proper debut. Everything is an upgrade from “Waste ’Em All,” right down to the goofy cover art. Monsters and drunken belligerence continue to be the main lyrical topics, dispensed with a healthy dose of juvenile humor. This time, however, there’s some (minor) variation when Foresta’s channels “The Terminator” and “The Thing,” as well as life advice: “Stop mulling through your problems, don’t drink the pain away / Don’t use it for a crutch to start acting really lame.” Even his criticism of religion is fittingly asinine: “Hide behind the cross, telling lies of the absurd / How many altar boys are fucked before your time is served?” It’s got the nuance of a drunk uncle and the subtlety of an airhorn. Then again, so does Municipal Waste and that’s why we love them.
Play it again: “Mind Eraser” and “Bangover”
Skip it: “Black Ice”
3. The Art of Partying (2007)
As the title and cover (drunkenly) scream, The Waste’s third full-length is their most party-centric. This is their Frank The Tank album, and can be summed up thusly: “Raging to a level of inebriated bliss / Pounding to the speed of the metal with our fists.” Of course, there’s still room for violence, and it’s handled with typical “Monty Python”-esque absurdity. The record’s funniest song finds Foresta using “open your mind” in a literal manner, despite the listener assuming it’s figurative: “What I meant to say just might hurt / But my intentions are far worse / The confusion of my strange advice / Can be solved in just one simple slice.” Musically, it’s a better-played and better-produced version of “Hazardous Mutation,” which is to say: another highly entertaining soundtrack for getting fucking shitfaced.
Play it again: “Headbanger Face Rip,” “Beer Pressure,” and “Chemically Altered”
Skip it: “Radioactive Force”
2. Massive Aggressive (2009)
Municipal Waste’s fourth album is their first with some evolution. “Massive Aggressive” is more thrash than punk, with a few actual choruses and a handful of the band’s best songs and riffs. There’s some real growth in the songwriting and arrangement—like the nifty, NWOBHM-esque leads of “Mech-Cannibal”—that signals a (slightly?) more mature band. That’s true of the lyrics, also. Here, Foresta takes two (!) sorta-intelligent swings at religion (“I really do not get the part / Where I spend eternity in dark / Because I don’t believe in Noah’s Ark”), as well as an accurate, if reductive, criticism of the media (“You might think I overreact / But TV’s got me paranoid / Real life turned to entertainment / To fill some desperate void”). Fear not, though: he makes time for vampires, zombies, killer robots, and a lethal gameshow. Municipal Waste sorta played against type here, and the gamble turned out pretty well.
Play it again: “Masked Delirium,” “Wolves of Chernobyl,” and “Wrong Answer”
Skip it: “Media Skeptic”
1. Electrified Brain (2022)
In which a crossover thrash band all but throws out the “crossover” part and makes a ripping thrash album. Maybe Arthur Rizk—producer and engineer best known for working with Power Trip—pushed the band to new heights. Whatever the source of inspiration, The Waste offer their finest set of songs here, featuring sharp and catchy riffs, flashy leads, and even a few hooks. Meanwhile, Foresta’s as entertaining as he’s ever been, calling the famous 1974 Ten Cent Beer Night “the best mistake this home team ever made,” and writing a song about killing someone and turning them into alcohol: “Raise my frothy mug of death / The flavor—the only thing of you that’s left.” It’s an impressive achievement to hit your peak two decades in. Let’s hope we don’t gotta wait five years to see what’s next.
Play it again: “Grave Dive” → “The Bite” → “High Speed Steel,” the best three-song run in their catalog
Skip it: “Putting On Errors”