The Pit
The Pit Threads
Destruction - "Cracked Brain" (1990)
Teutonic thrash heavyweights Destruction & I have always maintained an unusual relationship when compared to that of most extreme metal fans. You see, despite my having quite enjoyed the their early “Bestial Invasion of Hell” demo, I have to admit that I’ve never really gotten on with Destruction’s first couple of proper releases in 1984’s “Sentence of Death” E.P. & 1985's “Infernal Overkill” debut album. It’s not until they became a little more adventurous & added a bit of sophistication to their sound with their 1986 sophomore album “Eternal Devastation” that I saw my interest being held with any sort of regularity & from that point I saw Destruction adding a little more appeal with each release they put out during the back end of the 1980’s. But the reality is that I discovered all of these releases in quick succession & not necessarily in chronological order after first having Destruction brought to my attention through some material from “Sentence of Death” that was playing on a late-night underground metal radio program I used to obsessively follow as an early teenager.
The first & only Destruction release that I’d purchase an original copy of at the time of its release would be 1990’s “Cracked Brain” fourth full-length which came off the back of my favourite Destruction records in 1987’s “Release From Agony” & 1989 live album “Live Without Sense”. Ben & I picked “Cracked Brain” up on cassette & I played it fairly religiously for some time afterwards. It wouldn’t be for a couple of decades that I’d discover that I really shouldn’t enjoy “Cracked Brain” as much as I had been. It’s apparently forbidden for one reason or another, mainly due to the sacking of legendary front man Schmier just prior to the recording of the album from what I can make out. But my memories of “Cracked Brain” are in direct contrast to the consistent criticism I’ve read about it online lately so I decided to see how much of my positivity is caused by nostalgia & how much is genuine quality.
As with all of Destruction’s previous records, “Cracked Brain” was released through legendary German metal label Steamhammer Records, this time with experienced English producer Guy Bidmead sharing the production duties with the band. Guy had certainly paid his dues over the years but his most noteworthy contributions as a metal producer were through Motorhead’s “No Remorse” & “Rock ‘n’ Roll”, Exciter’s “Long Live The Loud” & “Unveiling The Wicked”, Cloven Hoof’s “Dominator” & Coroner’s “Punishment For Decadence”. Unfortunately though, the result of his work on “Cracked Brain” amounted to a wishy washy & slightly muted sounding record that’s a little lacking in brightness. Thankfully though, the quality of the majority of the material is strong enough to overcome the deficiencies in the mix.
That’s right ladies & gentlemen. I said it. “Cracked Brain” is a high-quality thrash metal record that features Destruction’s most complex & sophisticated song structures to date. The angular, technical nature of many of the riffs gives the album a fresh & exciting feel while, contrary to popular opinion, I’ve always felt that the inclusion of a new vocalist in André Grieder of Swiss thrashers Poltergeist breathed new life into the band. Original singer & bassist Schmier had been unceremoniously sacked just prior to the recording of the album, a decision that most (eventually including the rest of the band members too it has to be said) felt was a very poor decision. André’s raspy delivery sounds a little more screamy & psychotic in a Paul Baloff kinda way as opposed to the snarlier Schmier but I think both have their merits & the two guitarists do a great job at picking up Schmier’s bass duties. Where “Release From Agony” bordered on technical thrash metal, “Cracked Brain” takes the full plunge for a good half the album, often sounding as much like Coroner as it does Kreator or Sodom. The way they manage to incorporate melody into their riffs without sacrificing on the darkness is something that really appeals to me personally. Don’t get me wrong though, this is still an aggressive & thrashy as fuck Destruction record with a whole lot of energy & I don’t think any member of The Pit will have too many problems with the musical direction.
This brings us to the obvious exception however & one that I feel is primarily responsible for “Cracked Brain” being treated unfairly by many diehard fans. I’m not sure whose decision it was to include a cover version of The Knack’s “My Sherona” right in the middle of the tracklisting but it was undeniably a very poor one. Again contrary to popular opinion though, I don’t think it’s a bad version of the track if you listen to it in isolation & don’t focus on the fact that it’s been produced by a thrash band. In fact, if you heard it playing in a pub at high volume after downing a few beers with your mates then I can almost guarantee that you’d all be singing along to it merrily. It’s just that it sounds so out of whack with the material around it that’s the big problem here & I simply can’t justify the decision to include it. Thankfully though, the rest of the tracklisting is completely blemish-free & is actually very strong. The opening title track is the clear highlight & is one of Destruction's best tracks overall in my opinion but the rest of the tracklisting rarely dips below a very solid & consistent level of quality with the less ambitious thrasher “Die A Day Before You’re Born” probably being the weaker of the bunch if you exclude the poorly placed cover version.
The musicianship on “Cracked Brain” is nothing short of stunning to be honest & is a real highlight with Destruction once again proving themselves to be miles ahead of the other three Teutonic Big Four members when it comes to technical proficiency. The two lead guitarists Mike Sifringer & Harry Wilkens really go to town on the sweep picking during some highly creative guitar solos that lean pretty heavily on progressive concepts to differentiate themselves from standard thrash metal fodder. Odd time signatures are pulled off with ease while drummer Oliver Kaiser (who joined the band for their last album “Release From Agony”) once again puts in a solid performance that works more to accentuate the music around him than trying for anything too showy.
While I do think that “Release From Agony” just manages to top “Cracked Brain”, I simply can’t understand or condone the consistently lacklustre opinions on what I consider to be a very engaging European thrash metal record & one that I’d take over any of Destruction’s pre-1987 releases. People need to look past their anger at Schmier’s sacking & the silly cover version so that they can reach the gooey centre that clearly seems to have been eluding them up until this point.
4/5
Pestilence - "Malleus Maleficarum" (1988)
Dutch death metal legends Pestilence played an important role in my original defection from thrash metal back in the very late 1980’s through their seminal 1989 sophomore record “Consuming Impulse” & they would quickly become a mainstay in my newly instigated death metal obsession for decades to come. Their position was only strengthened by their classic “Testimony of the Ancients” album (my Pestilence release of choice) in 1991 while I also found 1993’s experimental “Spheres” record to be more than a little intriguing. It’s a little baffling that I didn’t give Pestilence’s highly regarded 1988 debut album “Malleus Maleficarum” more time than I did though to be honest. I’d suggest that it was probably due to its thrashier sound which was a little at odds with the adjusted musical direction I was starting to take. I certainly found it to be an entertaining record but I didn’t find myself pushing its cause with others or reaching for it whenever I was putting together any top ten lists. It’s been decades since I’ve heard it now though & I feel it’s deserving of a revisit given that its reputation has only grown in the many years since.
Shortly after you first press play on “Malleus Maleficarum” it becomes abundantly clear that Pestilence were already a super-classy metal band because this music doesn’t sound much like a debut album from 1988 given the ambition & precision on show. German producer Kalle Trapp has done an excellent job at capturing such a raw & aggressive sound, drawing upon his previous experience in producing popular Teutonic artists such as Destruction, Paradox, Sieges Even & Blind Guardian to create one of the more professional releases to come from the late 80’s extreme metal scene. The musicianship is outstanding with the riffs possessing a consistent memorability that would become one of the band’s calling cards over the next five years. The use of progressive flourishes within the riff structures may not be anything terribly unusual these days but it was well ahead of its time back in 1988 & is executed with surprising confidence for such a young band too.
While “Malleus Maleficarum” is generally regarded as a thrash metal record, I would argue that it’s a genuine death/thrash release because it maintains a level of ambiguity throughout the ten tracks included with many of the riffs sounding like they’d be equally at home on either side of the line of segregation. Pestilence often showcase an angularity that would seep its way into the death metal scene through heavy-weights like Death but also maintain the visceral thrash metal edge that the Teutonic thrash metal scene had built its reputation on. In short, guitarists Patrick Mameli (who spent some time with Dutch groove metallers C-187 in the mid-2000’s) & Randy Meinhard (also of Dutch thrashers Sacrosanct) simply weren’t willing to settle for mere emulation. They wanted to achieve something more substantial & I’d suggest they were successful at that undertaking too. Patrick’s solos may not have been as polished or fully realized as they would become shortly afterwards but the rhythm guitar work certainly sounds pretty impressive for the time nonetheless. The other element worth mentioning in the death metal argument is the vocal delivery of legendary death metal figure Martin van Drunen (Asphyx/Grand Supreme Blood Court/Hail of Bullets) which may not be the psychotic howl he’d build his career on at this point but is deathly enough to be significant in the argument for a dual tagging. He kinda sounds like the love child of Motorhead’s Lemmy Killmeister & Death’s Chuck Schuldiner here but I really enjoy his contribution. Overall, I’d suggest that “Malleus Maleficarum” takes the potent thrash metal of Sodom, Kreator & particularly "Schizophrenia"-era Sepultura & combines it with the early US death metal of Possessed & Death for a best-of-both-worlds sound that ticks all of my boxes in emphatic fashion.
There are no weak moments on “Malleus Maleficarum”. The tracklisting is as muscular as it is consistent but the big moments take place at either end of the run time with opener “Malleus Maleficarum/Antropomorphia” & closers “Cycle of Existence” & “Systematic Instruction” being my personal favourites. The beautiful clean interlude “Osculum Infame” is also stunningly well executed & was a clear hint at the creativity & experimentation that was to come in the future. The middle of the album is more solid than classic but maintains a high level of sophistication throughout.
I’ve been really surprised by how hard “Malleus Maleficarum” has hit me on this revisit to be honest as I don’t often reach for it when I feel the need for a Pestilence hit. My passion for the more aggressive thrash metal of the late 1980’s & early 1990’s has only grown if anything though & that has perhaps contributed to me taking a lot more from the album than I may have anticipated. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s just shaded “Consuming Impulse” to become my second favourite Pestilence release behind “Testimony of the Ancients” which is really saying something. It’s also gone very close to breaking into my elite ratings so I'd suggest that “Malleus Maleficarum really should be regarded as essential death/thrash these days & it comes highly recommended from this ol' metalhead.
4/5
Testament - "Practice What You Preach" (1988)
Legendary San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal band Testament represent quite a pivotal band in my life in many ways. My first encounters with thrash metal back in late 1988 were a clear example of love at first sight & I’d subsequently throw myself head over heals into the Big Four with a vigour that I’ve rarely repeated in all the years since. Where Testament fit in is that they, along with fellow Bay Area heavy-weights Exodus, were the first artists to prove to me that there was a thriving underground thrash scene outside of the four senior players & we shouldn’t underestimate that event because it was the key moment that took me from being one of those people that only likes the big, well-known bands to becoming a complete extreme metal obsessive. I’d find myself purchasing Testament’s 1989 third album “Practice What You Preach” blind, based primarily on the feedback I’d received from metal magazines of the time that indicated that they sounded a lot like my beloved Metallica & that ended up being pretty accurate in the end. I wouldn’t adore “Practice What You Preach” to the same extent as the classics from the Big Four or Exodus’ jaw-dropping “Bonded By Blood” but it would certainly become a staple record in not only my own bedroom but also my younger brother Ben’s. In fact, I think Testament probably played an even bigger role in Ben’s life & it was “Practice What You Preach” that kick-started it all. It's been interesting to see Testament’s third album receiving mixed reviews in recent years though as that certainly wasn’t the case back in the day when it became a minor hit for the band. It’s been literally decades since I revisited it though & I’d been wondering if I might find my childhood feelings being tarnished in a similar way to what my recent revisit of Anthrax’s “State of Euphoria” album did to be honest so it’s been interesting to see how big a role nostalgia has played in my long-time position that “Practice What You Preach” is yet another very high-quality thrash record to follow on from their first two full-lengths which are generally held up as pivotal moments for the genre.
The first obstacle that I thought I might need to overcome would be the production as I’ve seen quite a few online murmurings about it being weak in recent times but that’s not the case with producer Alex Perialas doing a pretty reasonable job. He was an experienced campaigner by that point having already produced a slew of classic thrash records like S.O.D.’s “Speak English or Die”, Overkill’s “Taking Over”, Carnivore’s “Retaliation” as well as Testament’s “The Legacy” & “The New Order” so it would have been a surprise to find that he’d cocked this album up but I needn’t have worried too much as it’s certainly an improvement on the weak, thin guitar tone that plagued “The New Order”. The real stumbling blocks are two-fold; firstly, front man Chuck Billy’s tendency to sing out of key during the more commercially accessible moments &, secondly, Testament’s newly found love affair with chuggy, mid-paced & generally fairly unintimidating thrash metal riffs. That’s right, there’s a reason that “Practice What You Preach” was the biggest selling Testament record to date & it comes down to accessibility. My first listen saw me very quickly being reminded of it too & after the first few tracks I was worried that I might find myself needing to realign my feelings on the album fairly drastically with even the legendary title track sounding pretty tame by today’s standards. Thankfully though, things picked up significantly after that.
Having given the album a few full & active revisits now I can honestly say that I’ve gotten used to Chuck’s vocal issues. I remember initially struggling with them a bit back in the day too if I’m being honest but it seems like I just need some time with him. The more lethargic riffs are another story though. I’ve never rated drummer Louie Clemente & feel that he’s one of the main reasons that I’ve never considered Testament’s highly praised 1980’s releases to be tier one thrash records. He simply loves a rocky & accessible beat which may contribute to Testament’s widespread appeal but it doesn’t rock my boat personally. Future Savatage & Trans-Siberian Orchestra lead guitarist Alex Skolnick’s solos are nothing short of fucking sensational though & I’ve very quickly remembered why I worshipped him so much as a budding young shredder. His sense of melody is second to none & he compliments Dragonlord guitarist Eric Peterson’s riffs perfectly. Despite the focus of mid-paced tempos, the duo still present some belter riffs here on occasion which makes tracks like “Time Is Coming”, “Blessed In Contempt”, “Sins of Omission” & instrumental closer “Confusion Fusion” highly captivating. Strangely though, it’s the most obvious attempt at commercialism in “The Ballad” that is the real highlight of the record in my opinion, thanks largely to some stunning lead work from Skolnick. Billy is at his pitchiest here but the doubling of his vocal lines gives them an eery atmosphere that I find quite endearing. The song structure is beautifully constructed too & by the end of the record I find that these moments of brilliance do just enough to overcome a couple of clear duds in the lethargic chugger “Envy Life” & unintelligent thrasher “Nightmare (Coming Back To You)”.
While “Practice What You Preach” is clearly the weaker of Testament’s first three albums, it’s also their most ambitious as it sees the band incorporating some additional elements & expanding their repertoire as musicians. The more progressive touches, the stronger focus on song-writing & their most obvious attempt at a radio hit are all interesting additions but I do crave a little more energy in my thrash which leaves “Practice What You Preach” feeling a little light-weight. This has been offset by the class with which Testament are able to go about their work & the ridiculous skills of their dual guitar attack though which results in a final product that will surely please fans of peers like Metallica, Exodus or Death Angel.
4/5
Demoniac - Nube negra (2023)
Released 1st September 2023
I have often been heard extolling the virtues of Chilean thrash metal and I believe it to be the only thrash metal scene that still retains any real relevancy. In the vanguard and on point of the Chilean assault on the world's thrash fans is the excellent Demoniac, whose previous album, 2020's So It Goes, only lost out in the race to be my AOTY for that year to MSW's superb Obliviosus. Well, it has been three years already since they dropped that beauty and they are back with a new album, Nube negra (Black Cloud) and it is no black cloud on my horizon, I can tell you.
There have been a change or two in the Demoniac camp since the release of So It Goes, with guitarist Nicolás Young leaving to be replaced by his Asedio band mate Javier Cisternas and drummer Rodrigo Poblete vacating the stool with mainman Javier Ortiz taking up the sticks in addition to providing vocals, guitar, keyboards, clarinet and accordion - oh, and all the lyrics and songwriting! Still, it is Ortiz' vision on show here and as such Nube negra doesn't miss a beat in continuing where So It Goes left off, despite the personnel changes.
After a short intro of storm effects and a quite reflective-sounding acoustic guitar piece, Nube negra leaps up and goes straight for the throat with a proper pummelling slice of high-octane blackened thrash that hits like a hammer blow. It seems that this time around the black metal influence to the band's thrashing is more pronounced, even so, the riffs still retain that memorable melodicism that marked So It Goes so well, whilst managing to sound even more aggressive than before. The short instrumental Marchageddon and third track Ácaro continue this blistering assault and everyone is on fine form, Ortiz' drumming is lethally potent and drives the track forwards at breakneck speed whilst his blackened vocals spit venom at all and sundry. La Caida continues in the same vicious vein, with Vicente Pereira's pronounced bass work that is so characterisric of Chilean thrash, combining with Ortiz' drumming to provide a precise and powerful framework upon which the guitarists can go to work as they unleash some lethal-sounding and expansive soloing with keyboard support also boosting the depth of the sound. At this point we have reached the final track on side one and Demoniac throw us their first curveball. As La Caida ends with a lone piano outro, we are led into an accordion-fronted piece, Synthèse d'accords that swirls along like something you may hear at some weird, nightmare circus showground.
Side two then kicks off with the seven-minute Granada which begins with an intro featuring Ortiz' haunting signature clarinet, that was used to great effect on their previous outing, however the track soon takes a darker turn as the traditional metal instruments enter the fray before finally erupting into a full-on head-charge with more soaring and savage-sounding lead work howling to the heavens as the guitarists let rip with gusto. Veneno continues in similar vein, with the guitars howling ever more frantically, like a duel between Randy Rhoads and Steve Vai, until at midpoint the track draws a huge breath and takes on a reflective and almost drone-like tone ending the tape slowing and the track grinding slowly to a halt with, for my money, the only misstep on the album. El Final closes out the album with a whirling dervish of a riff that burns a blistering trail to a dizzying album's end.
So, is Nube negra as good as So It Goes? Well, I'm still undecided. It's a close-run thing with the former still just about holding the lead, but I think Nube negra has a very real chance of toppling it as my favourite Demoniac album. It feels less progressive and other than the mid-point breather of Synthèse d'accords and the first part of Granada, it is a fiery and aggressive affair, guitar solos performed with an incendiary, almost neoclassical fervour, a brutally exacting rhythm section, high velocity melodic and memorable riffs and Ortiz' blackened vocals spitting out the lyrics with venomous spite. Everything taken into account, this makes for a 2023 thrash metal album that you absolutely must hear.
4.5/5