When groups like S.O.D., Murphy’s Law, and D.R.I. combined the floor-stomping grooves of hardcore with the speed of thrash and punk, these groups were really onto something. The said style was a staple to any metal head’s tape collection in the 1980s. For multiple reasons, the sound has mostly gone to the wayside, possible due to the record industry’s attempt to eradicate metal with hip hop and grunge. The genuine vibe related by bands of this fold was so classic that it never really went away.
Nowhere can one find better evidence of crossover’s timelessness than in Richmond, Virginia’s Municipal Waste. The Waste has brought back all the elements that made this scene so fun and although the early days of thrashing hardcore will never be duplicated, and the majority of the group was too young to have experienced the glory days of crossover, a Municipal Waste concert is about the closest one will get to experience the mayhem of those early crossover of that scene. The typical Municipal Waste show features denim-clad thrasher and skater punks running around wildly to run around wildly in circle pit fashion. The band’s unbridled energy and crowd participation makes for a fun and memorable concert experience.
Vintage crossover and thrash bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Voivod, old Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, Slayer, and the ones mentioned above are an obvious influence on the music Municipal Waste creates. However, there is something distinctive about this group. Every member displays a unique musical talent and personality. With his long, black hair and trademark bandana, front man Tony Forestaleads the charge with speedy yelling in a similar fashion to Kurt Brecht of D.R.I. Guitarist Ryan Waste is one dude who really digs thrash metal. Clad in vintage thrash t’s, he can be seen every night busting out speedy lick after speedy lick, head in constant motion, interjecting their music with a dose of attitude with his punkish backing vocals. Denim patches galore and a Will Rahmer-like bandana consistently describe the onstage look of bulldozing bassist Land Phil. Phil’s bass lines set a fast punk charge or fly along at death metal velocities. Providing the beat is veteran skins man, Dave Witte, whose grindcore background (East-West Blast Test, Human Remains, and Burnt by the Sun) adds speed and a booming power rarely implicit in classic hardcore and thrash.
Each member is a definite character and their lyrical themes of partying, B-grade horror movies and comedy make the group the perfect subject for having their mugs immortalized as cartoon characters. The persona of Municipal Waste is one that separates the group from a sea of forgettable bands in these times.
Municipal Waste has constantly toured over the past year supporting the likes of Agnostic Front, The Haunted, Gwar and Destruction. On a Friday night at Harpos in Detroit, Michigan, Ryan Waste summarizes the group’s past, current and future tour agenda:
“Well, we’re out with Toxic Holocaust and Skeletonwitch. We’ve finished up about half that tour. Right now, we’re just hanging out in Detroit (doing a one-off with Arch Enemy and Machine Head). We’re going out with Suicidal Tendencies in November. We’re just finishing up, doing a run of headlining shows on smaller, cheaper-priced shows. We just want to say thanks to our fans for coming out and partying with us. After this tour, we might go over to England and be on some television program. I wish I could remember the name of it; it is huge over there. Keep your ears open to that if you are out in The U.K. Then we go down and play the Gainesville Fest in Florida, which is like a punk fest. There are hundreds of bands on that. Then we go out with Suicidal on the west coast. It’s been a while, man. We’re really eager.”
When asked about their recent stint in Europe, Ryan answers, “We’ve been there almost all summer, man. We play the Wacken festival, which is the most incredible show we’ve played, I think, ever in Europe! It was the biggest show and we held it down. We had the whole crowd circle pitting the whole time. It was awesome! We did a lot of U.K. dates. We did a headliner tour in the U.K., played some incredible shows.”
”The reaction over there is starting to be just as intense—stage diving for every song, circle pits, drinkin’, and just nutty behavior,” continues Waste. “ The Haunted was earlier in the summer. We had some good crowds on that tour as well. The response for us was great almost every night. It was a rad time with those guys. Those guys were really fun to drink with every night and party. We got on stage together and did “United Forces” by S.O.D. a couple times. It was really cool.”
Municipal Waste has garnered a large cult following at their shows. Part of this interest is due to the band’s involvement with their crowd. In past concerts, they pulled out such shenanigans as placing a trampoline on the stage to propel crazy stage divers into the crowd and bogey boards for authentic crowd surfing. They are also known for calling upon a different fan every night to guzzle from their beer bong. Since their momentous tour with Gwar, the band has added a new twist to this gimmick.
“We got The Inebriator, which is the ultimate beer bong that we got constructed from Gwar,” notes Ryan. “We feed it to the crowd every night when we play “The Inebriator.” The stage was so high tonight; the kid we brought up could barely make it up there. It took him about five minutes to drink the thing. It’s a staple in our set. We always bring out (stretches syllables out like Odorous’ speech) “The Inebriator.”
Partying has always been a major theme of the band, so it was only a matter of time before they released an album of such lung-heaving, stomach expelling goodness as their current release “The Art of Partying,” Ryan Waste agrees with the assessment that the said release is their ultimate party album, “I think so, man. I think we earned it after this one. I think we might have partied harder on all the other albums. By the time we got to this one, we were all partied out. But when another album comes out, we have to start all over again. I had a huge reputation to uphold with that one.”
