Toxic Pub come from Athens, play aggressive metal, and a few months ago they released their debut album. It’s called “To Not Die Blind” and it’s a sonic assault that leaves nothing but ruins behind. The band, formed in 2020, flirts heavily with thrash metal — however, it would be wrong to label Toxic Pub strictly as a thrash band. Simply because the Athenians have so many more elements in their sound. Let’s break it down: death metal vocals, groove metal riffs, influences from prog bands like Tool, doom metal passages! Want more?! Well, throw in some stoner/heavy blues references too! Imagine that the track “Still Unformed” actually ends with a very beautiful, emotional piano outro! At the end of the day, Toxic Pub just want to make good music and give the listener of “To Not Die Blind” a great time! And they absolutely succeed, since the album not only delivers quality extreme music but is also bound to excite any metalhead. Could all these different elements possibly mean that the album lacks personality or cohesion? Not at all — the young band manage to blend and balance all these influences wisely and harmoniously, creating a record that is purely… Toxic Pub! No, the Athenians are not reinventing the wheel or bringing something radically new to extreme metal — however, “To Not Die Blind” brings a fresh breeze to the soundscape of extreme music, blowing pure oxygen into the Greek scene. With such a strong start, Toxic Pub have every reason to be optimistic and proud of what lies ahead. Until their next strike, we’ve got “To Not Die Blind” on repeat!
♦ 8/10
Dimitris Zacharopoulos
