It's kind of sad that D-Train would rather call themsleves an indy band. They are metal in a long running tradition of the Bay Area, namely they are very much inspired by the bigger acts of the region like Testament and Metallica (who could've guessed). Add your mandatory 90's influences resulting in some chunky riffing, overly obvious attempts at jumping onto the mosh-core bandwagon without losing their commitment to the roots of the thrash movement... well, so you get a picture of what D-Train sound like. Of course, you need to keep in mind that this material is almost 2 years old.
Truthfully, the band are reasonable musicians. There are 3 of them, and the singing of their guitar player is not the most suitable for the type of music this band plays. It reminds me a lot of what Chuck Billy did on "Legacy" and even on "Practice What You Preach". It maybe that I'm not exactly a fan of this type of music; however, the fact that the band so rooted in the 80's sound doesn't even attempt to make things a bit more interesting by actually stepping on it is downright discouraging. If you look back at what made Testament music so killer back in the days, it was a correct combination of the speed factor and a right dose of heaviness... here it's just way too predictable.
Again, the local scene in the Bay Area is full of bands like D-Train (Maladdiction and Vegas Preacher immidiately come to mind, but there are MANY more, believe me, guys). They share exactly the same approach only differing in how much death metal they allow themselves to sink into or how much radio-friendly bullshit they inject into their efforts. It's been done before and there's no way this kind of metal will ever sound fresh and/or interesting again. Maybe it's time to move on and explore what's out there, guys? With your skills and (my guess) experience you should be able to avoid being the tired cliche that Aggression S.F. is.
Write to: D-Train, 59 West View Ave, San Francisco, CA 94134 or e-mail them at brutal@pacbell.net
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