4 Great Thrash Songs

AMG Review of 4 Great Thrash Songs

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

The title 4 Great Thrash Songs is in the tradition of Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats, with the added fillip that unlike the Gristle's album, four great hrash songs is what the average listener would expect from a band named Victim's Family on the Alternative Tentacles label. Ralph Spight was never particularly interested in sticking to expectations, however, and while there are certainly more than four great hrash songs stuck in among the 23 tracks, this career-spanning live recording (documenting the group's last gig, from 1994) also gives a nod to the elements of prog metal ("Nirvana" and "Ugly Thing"), power pop ("Song X"), Minutemen-style punk-jazz ("Yeah!" and "Creepy People"), and anything else that struck Spight's fancy and ended up in his sarcastic, complex, but surprisingly user-friendly songs.