Deep in the DRI thrash era. This record is middling at best: it’s repetitive, not very dynamic, and frankly a bit boring and a drag. The production is thin - the guitars sound kind of lifeless; the drums are predictable though there’s some impressive speed and technically they are mostly sound, just not very interesting. The final song, “Man Unkind” has a sweet circle pit part towards the end of the song, but the whole song is like 2 minutes too long, which diminishes the good part.
They do manage to avoid the thrash trope of having a song about nuclear war or pollution - at least on this album. And Modern World is literally just a list of words in the zeitgeist in the late 80s (“Star Wars”, “TV Dinner”, “Cordless phone”, “Computer,” etc.) - which is kind of brilliantly stupid.
When I think of their contemporaries from the same era - punk bands that turned thrash, like Suicidal Tendencies -D.R.I. was behind the curve with this one. Their previous and next releases are both better than this one. Slumlord is an all-timer though.