There was a short time in my teenage years when I thought Nasty Savage was the bee’s knees. I wrote a letter to the band after seeing a review in (UK mag) Metal Forces, and got a free demo, stickers and a handwritten reply from band leader Nasty Ronnie himself by return of post! For a fifteen-year-old in the UK it was basically the best thing that had ever happened, and it made me a fan for life. Or at least the few years before the band seemed to fizzle out.

Their musical style was balancing the fine line between thrash and American power metal, but with accomplished proggy twists and turns. Once the TV-smashing antics of Ronnie and his almost-sneering vocal delivery was thrown in, it made for a rather strange brew. Despite their obvious talent, Nasty Savage never quite rose beyond the underground and they probably watched slightly bemused as the kids who filled their hometown Florida shows went on to greater success as part of the burgeoning death metal scene.

The band has staggered back a couple of times over the years, most recently releasing the underwhelming Psycho Psycho via Metal Blade ten years ago. This time they return with ‘Nasty’ Ronnie Galletti the sole original member, along with a pack of musicians whose collective prior experience shows doggedness if not the glare of the spotlight.

I’m always wary of comeback albums given that they’re rarely successful, and I’ll admit that my first spin of Jeopardy Room wasn’t a positive one. The maxed-out mastering certainly didn’t help soothe my jerking knee, with it occasionally making a mush of the excellent Morrisound recording. Ronnie’s vocals haven’t changed much over the years to be fair, maybe pitched a little lower and the trademark falsetto consigned to the past, but musically it’s a different story, a case of the right ingredients but something not quite right with the recipe.

A short whooshty intro Invocations sets the tone, a wash of synth strings and bass chords, before the title track flies in, a furious number that gallops along at a decent pace. It quickly shows the musical ability of the band Ronnie has managed to assemble behind him, these guys are no chumps. Brain Washer is next, a fairly standard chug-along with some hokey gang vocals on the chorus. Southern Fried Homicide starts strong with an acoustic intro leading to a very decent riff, but soon descends to directionless riffage, akin to the mid-period Exodus albums that no one remembers.

It was great to hear an updated version of Witches Sabbath, a track from the Wage of Mayhem demo clearly showing the bands original influence taken from Mercyful Fate. While a success, it felt out of place on this album as a whole. Schizoid Platform seems to be the best attempt at taking on the Abstract Reality/Penetration Point style, but where the Nasty savage of old would have turned on a sixpence without warning, the transitions here are clearly signposted.

It probably feels like I am being unduly harsh, and I suppose I am, but without Ronnie and his distinctive vocals at the helm I would struggle to recognise this as a Nasty Savage album. But given the return to using Lewis Van Dercar artwork and using tracks from the original demo, I must assume they wished to be judged alongside the Nasty Savage of old.

It’s a pretty decent thrash album nonetheless, it features some skilled musicianship and Ronnie himself is in good voice. Jeopardy Room is definitely their best recorded output since Penetration Point, but it’s an album that feels far more Bay Area than Florida for the most part.

Jeopardy Room releases on October 10th.