Since this was such a recent release, I was very surprised to see this show up in the cheapo bin. Admittedly, I've never followed the band that closely, so when I bought this, I assumed it was their newest album, not realizing it's a compilation of old tracks from some vinyl splits/comps. Even treating it as a mini-CD, it's also extremely short--it doesn't even hit the 10 min. mark. On the plus side, all of the material is from around the time of their first album, and I always found Waste 'Em All to be marginally better and a little less contrived than most of their later material.
And it is indeed in the same vein as their other early material. Opening instrumental "Escape from New York" is the thrashiest the CD gets. Aside from the vocals, the other tracks from the original Tango and Thrash split EP feel a little less overtly D.R.I.-influenced than the debut album--the relentless speed reminds me of variations on Nuclear Assault's "Hang the Pope" with Cryptic Slaughter influences mixed in. Then there's a previously unreleased version of "Dropped Out" from the Tango and Thrash sessions. It's not that different from the album version, and still sounds like a more metallic take on Dealing With It!-era D.R.I.
Finally, there's a Poison Idea cover and two Corrosion of Conformity covers. The early COC covers aren't a musical stretch at all, but quite frankly, you can tell how even something like "Minds Are Controlled" is so much more interesting from a songwriting and compositional standpoint than most of the Municipal Waste originals.
Overall, not bad for a quick little blast of crossover, and especially because of the short running time, I'm glad I didn't have to shell out more than two bucks for it.
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