So, I take it like something good can come out through some ‘talent shows’ too. Norwegian Thrashers TANTARA, was said to start out as a ‘talent show’ project kind of thing between vocalist and guitarist Fredrik (Bjerkø) and drummer Stian (Sannerud) in the fall of 2009. Since then two more members – Per Semb for the 2nd guitar and Max Warnby for bass, were recruited to the band’s line-up. After a few demos and EPs (or singles), TANTARA’s arousing potential was noticed and a deal with Indie Recordings was inked soon. "Based On Evil", the title of TANTARA’s first full-length studio album, is basically a deep bow from the band toward the ’80s Bay Area Thrash Metal scene. TANTARA’s Bay Area influences are very strong (preferably underline and bold those two aforementioned words) – and I would even go that far by saying TANTARA have been the most convincing band out of all these other retro Thrash bands so far that have been capable of capturing and locking the true essence and soul of the whole Bay Area spirit and vibe into their own songs. If you need a bit more specific description about TANTARA, well, take METALLICA’s "Ride The Lighting" and "Master Of Puppets" albums, and then fuse them with something from VIO-LENCE, FORBIDDEN, TESTAMENT (only the "Legacy" era) and HEATHEN – and you’ll have a pretty good idea how they sound like. The bottom line however is, TANTARA do sound pretty darn amazing really; constantly moving riff fests follow one after another, Fredrik coming after us like a serial killer with his partly Sean Killian type of angry vocal outbursts (check out the title track of the album, ‘Based On Evil’), all guitar solos offering some really virtuoso type of finger mastering but also having both drum and bass work truly magnificent on TANTARA’s, to say highly impressive album, for most part at least. Flemming Rasmussen (that METALLICA producer guru) has taken care of having exactly the spot-on production for an album like this, in which he has also succeeded at very well. Guitars’ tone brings back a very similar, heavy and thick guitar sound that was used on both METALLICA’s "Ride The Lightning" and "Master Of Puppets" albums. And you really cannot lose with that kind of crushingly heavy and pounding guitar tone, can you? The average length of the songs is approx. 7 minutes on the record, and I am sure many may see this as a slight problem for them, like thinking less could be more. For some reason TANTARA have avoided all these easy traps along their way to sound dull or uninspiring even if their songs have quite monstrous minutes in them. The songs just work, and thinking that each of these young fellows are just at the age of 19 or 20, and when mirroring this fact against "Based On Evil" is just the band’s debut album, I am sure TANTARA will have a great future ahead of them. So, do we have Thrash Metal album of 2012 in here? Most likely so… More about TANTARA, at: www.tantara-thrash.com, label: www.indierecordings.net