The Technical Thrash Metal Thread

Deathrow - "Deception Ignored" (1989)

I’ve been wanting to revisit the 1989 third album from Teutonic thrashers Deathrow for many years now but seem to have been subconsciously procrastinating. I think the reason behind that stems back to a hang-up I had with “Deception Ignored” back in the day. It was the release that introduced me to Deathrow & I was becoming increasingly interested in your more technical extreme metal artists at the time so I was pretty open to indulging in its charms. To be fair, I did find it to be an enjoyable record too but there was always something that got in the way of me fully committing to “Deception Ignored” like so many of my peers were. I’ll save that for a little later in the review but I thought it was worth throwing that little disclaimer out there for why I might not have submitted a rating for such a widely celebrated thrash release up until now.

I think it’s fair to say that Deathrow’s first two albums were drastically different to “Deception Ignored”. They both took a much more traditional approach to Teutonic thrash & are closer in style to bands like Darkness, Vendetta & even Canada’s Sacrifice. Their 1987 sophomore record “Raging Steel” had seen the band starting to toy with a more sophisticated sound but it was nothing terribly extreme. “Deception Ignored”, however, saw Deathrow throwing themselves head over heals into an incredibly complex & progressive record that sat amongst the most ambitious releases the thrash scene had delivered to the time. The level of musicianship had been increased significantly & I’d imagine that even the band’s most diehard fans must have been surprised by what they heard.

This begs the question as to how this all came about now, doesn’t it? Well, it would come in the form of a lineup change to be specific. Guitarist Thomas Priebe had decided that life as a musician was not for him & had been replaced by the relatively unknown Uwe Osterlehner who, despite never having played in a band of this magnitude before, was extremely proficient at his instrument. Uwe played a major role in the writing process & the band tended to go along with the direction he wanted to take which resulted in a landmark release for the Teutonic thrash scene. Legendary German metal producer Harris Johns (who had already produced a slew of important releases such as Helloween’s self-titled E.P. & “Walls of Jericho” debut album, Kreator’s “Pleasure To Kill”, Sodom’s “Agent Orange” & Voivod’s “Killing Technology” & Dimension Hatross”) was once again responsible for the production duties & managed to nicely balance the raw electricity of Deathrow’s roots with the clarity required to pull off such technically challenging song structures so one would imagine that the band’s label Noise Records would have been thrilled with the outcome.

“Deception Ignored” is the very epitome of the technical thrash metal sound in that it never forgets where Deathrow came from but consistently explores highly progressive concepts in its composition. The guitar work in particular is stunning in its scope but the performances are never polished enough to leave you forgetting that the album has come from the Teutonic scene & that’s an element that I really appreciate in this record. The ripping guitar solos are right up my alley while drummer Markus Hahn sounds like he’s hanging on for dear life at times but he somehow manages to hold it all together which gives the album some added tension. Unfortunately this brings us to the major flaw that I mentioned earlier & it’s this component that single-handedly derails Deathrow’s chances of receiving a premium rating from me. Bassist Milo simply can’t sing this shit to save his life & that’s not me being overly harsh. I wasn’t the biggest fan of his inconsistent performance on “Raging Steel” but he’s reached an all new level of pitchiness here & it’s effectively nullified most of the great instrumental work (at least it has for me). Some people can’t tolerate Vio-lence’s Sean Killian or Exodus’ Paul Baloff but I’d comfortably take either of those gentlemen over this shit show any day of the week, particularly Milo’s higher-register squeally stuff which I find to be particularly grating.

All qualms aside, it’s hard to fault the tracklisting on “Deception Ignored” as every one of the eight tracks included offers a number of highly engaging instrumental passages. Some of them remind me quite a bit of classic Voivod which leaves me asking the question about Harris Johns’ involvement in the song-writing process given his contribution to some of the Canadian progressive metal legends’ finest work. The album actually starts in pretty solid fashion & halfway through my first revisit I was thinking that I might be on my way to a four-star rating off the back of high-quality efforts like opener “Events in Concealment” & lengthy instrumental “Triocton”. Unfortunately some of Milo’s poorer performances start to take their toll through the middle & back end of the tracklisting though with only the thrashier closer “Bureaucrazy” seeing things restored to their earlier promise.

So ultimately, “Deception Ignored” is a highly creative yet deeply flawed tech thrash record in my opinion. I’d take it over Deathrow’s 1986 debut album “Riders of Doom” but I give “Raging Steel” a slight edge over its more highly praised younger sibling these days. If you’re a diehard fan of tech thrash artists like Coroner, Realm or Аспид then you’ll probably want to see for yourself as there’s really not a lot of options in this space but I’m afraid I can’t say that I can justify the claims for “Deception Ignored” being an essential release with such an obvious vocal flaw.

3.5/5

Obliveon - "From The Day Forward" (1990)

A highly complex technical thrash metal debut album from my tape-trading days in the early 1990's. It's a shame the production isn't stronger as this could have been a pretty special release if it had a bit more energy & grunt behind it in the sound quality department. Even so, it's still a very solid & consistent record without any major blemishes. It sounds very much like Coroner meets Kreator which can't be a bad thing either.

4/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Technical Thrash Metal Releases of All Time list with Vektor's "Outer Isolation" being the unlucky one to make way for Obliveon:

01. Coroner – “Mental Vortex” (1991)

02. Sadus – “A Vision Of Misery” (1992)

03. Coroner – “No More Color” (1989)

04. Cryptic Shift – “Visitations From Enceladus” (2020)

05. Ripping Corpse - "Dreaming With The Dead" (1991)

06. Obliveon - "From This Day Forward" (1990)

07. Toxik – “World Circus” (1987)

08. Destruction - "Cracked Brain" (1990)

09. Аспид – “Кровоизлияние” (1993)

10. Coroner – “Punishment For Decadence” (1988)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/173

Sadus - "Swallowed in Black" (1990)

I was thoroughly impressed with my first serving of Californian thrashers Sadus which came through their 1988 debut album "Illusions" back in the very late 1980's so their 1990 sophomore album was very much a no-brainer for me. It's a touch less intense & not as consistently fast as "Illusions" but it more than makes up for it with an increase in technicality & creativity which gives it a slight edge over "Illusions" for mine. It's a super-consistent record to tell you the truth & it's only let down a little by a muddy guitar tone. I absolutely love the gnarly vocal snarl of guitar-playing front man Darren Travis while bass guitar icon Steve DiGiorgio is in his usual form too. "Swallowed in Black" is a high quality tech thrash record of great potency & energy that should well & truly grab tech thrash fans by the balls.

4/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Technical Thrash Metal Releases of All Time List with Coroner' "Punishment For Decadence" being the unfortunate record to drop out:

01. Coroner – “Mental Vortex” (1991)

02. Sadus - "Swallowed in Black" (1990)

03. Sadus – “A Vision Of Misery” (1992)

04. Coroner – “No More Color” (1989)

05. Cryptic Shift – “Visitations From Enceladus” (2020)

06. Ripping Corpse - "Dreaming With The Dead" (1991)

07. Obliveon - "From This Day Forward" (1990)

08. Toxik – “World Circus” (1987)

09. Destruction - "Cracked Brain" (1990)

10. Аспид – “Кровоизлияние” (1993)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/173

My once again adjusted Top Ten Technical Thrash Metal Releases of All Time list after having revisited Hellwitch's debut this week with Аспид's “Кровоизлияние” being the unlucky one to slip out:

01. Coroner – “Mental Vortex” (1991)

02. Sadus - "Swallowed in Black" (1990)

03. Sadus – “A Vision Of Misery” (1992)

04. Coroner – “No More Color” (1989)

05. Hellwitch - "Syzygial Miscreancy" (1990)

06. Cryptic Shift – “Visitations From Enceladus” (2020)

07. Ripping Corpse - "Dreaming With The Dead" (1991)

08. Obliveon - "From This Day Forward" (1990)

09. Toxik – “World Circus” (1987)

10. Destruction - "Cracked Brain" (1990)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/173

Sovereign - Altered Realities (2024)

I am a man of unsophisticated taste, particularly in music, as illustrated by my indifference to the dissonant and avant-garde, jazz in particular being anathema to me. In relation to this, for the longest time I considered technical death and thrash metal as also outside my comfort zone, but a dive into the earlier years of death metal resulted in the discovery that a certain level of technicality was indeed something I could enjoy, as epitomised by the Death and Atheist back catalogues. There is, however, a degree of technicality beyond which I switch off as it becomes more and more "jazzy" as per Gorguts and their ilk.

Anyway, this lengthy preamble to a review of Norway's Sovereign is relevant as they play a technical style of deaththrash that sits right slap-bang in the middle of my sweet spot for technical metal whereby the technical flourishes are sufficient to bring variety and interest without pushing into a more jazz-adjacent territory that I am more uncomfortable with. To be more precise, they play thrash metal with tech-death aspirations, influenced by mid-period Death albums and possibly by the current South American thrash metal, particularly that of Chilean bands like Ripper, Demoniac and Slaughtbbath.

Although this is the band's debut full-length, they are not newbies, with members, or ex-members, of Stormbeist and Execration and with Nekromantheon's live guitarist, Tommy Jacobsen taking on lead duties, a duty he discharges with impressive aplomb. His leads are incendiary and thrilling, with a high level of dextrous competency, sitting squarely on the right side of shredding, becoming neither flaccid nor self-indulgent and reminding me a little of how James Murphy's work lifted Death's Spiritual Healing, which is meant as high praise indeed - check out the final minute of Nebular Waves for a stellar example. They may not be the tightest band to play technical deaththrash, but they are sufficiently skilled that a slight looseness makes them sound more passionate than the stifling necessity of technical perfection often allows for. They have some solid riffs with energetic songwriting that incorporates the technical flourishes to add colour to the tracks rather than becoming the whole raison d'être. This is definitely an approach I wholeheartedly endorse and it has resulted the band coming up with an album that just sounds better with each repeated listen and which is one of a select few brand new thrash albums not from South America that I will happily keep returning to.

4/5

Here's my adjusted Top Ten Technical Thrash Releases of All Time list after revisiting KAT's "Bastard" this week. Destruction's "Cracked Brain" is the unlucky one to drop out of the list.

01. Coroner – “Mental Vortex” (1991)

02. Sadus - "Swallowed in Black" (1990)

03. Sadus – “A Vision Of Misery” (1992)

04. Coroner – “No More Color” (1989)

05. Hellwitch - "Syzygial Miscreancy" (1990)

06. Cryptic Shift – “Visitations From Enceladus” (2020)

07. Ripping Corpse - "Dreaming With The Dead" (1991)

08. KAT - "Bastard" (1992)

09. Obliveon - "From This Day Forward" (1990)

10. Toxik – “World Circus” (1987)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/173

Sadus - "A Vision of Misery" (1992)

Californian thrash metallers Sadus became a pretty big deal for a teenage me after I discovered their 1988 debut album "Illusions" through an Albums Of The Year list that was published by legendary metal record store & promoter Metal For Melbourne some time in 1989. I was only fairly fresh to thrash at the time, having only cottoned onto Metallica in late 1988 through their classic fourth album "...And Justice For All", but my initial dealings with Slayer had seen something raw & primal explode inside of me shortly afterwards & I was now on the lookout for ever more vicious releases. Sadus' "Illusions" certainly ticked that box even if it may have been more of an attempt to emulate Slayer than it was genuine competition for them. 1990's "Swallowed in Black" sophomore album saw Sadus upping the ante on the technicality & creativity at the expense of a little bit of raw intensity & I found that I actually preferred their more complex sound. A muddy guitar tone didn't help their cause but once got word of the release of Sadus' 1992 third album "A Vision Of Misery" I immediately made a visit to the record store to pick up a copy on cassette. Since that time, I've always felt that "A Vision Of Misery" was Sadus' strongest record which doesn't seem to be that common a position amongst fans so I thought I'd give it a more detailed viewing in order to see if those are still my true feelings.

Sadus' third full-length was their most technical to the time with the individual band members all being at the peak of their powers. The rhythm section of fretless bass virtuoso Steve DiGiorgio (Charred Walls of the Damned/Terra Odium/Testament/Artension/Control Denied/Death/Dragonlord/Ephel Duath/James Murphy/Sebastian Bach/Soen/Autopsy) & drummer Jon Allen (Dragonlord/Testament) in particular play an absolute blinder with DiGiorgio confidently reiterating why he's still my favourite metal bass player all of time. The riffs of guitar duo Darren Travis & Rob Moore are very classy, often even hinting at a more progressive approach, while Travis' trademark raspy vocal delivery is as aggressive & screamy as we'd come to expect from him. Bill Metoyer's production job is definitely worth mentioning though as it's a little unusual & seems to have been tailored to highlight the rhythm section with the guitars being a touch less in-your-face than I would have liked. It seems to work though, perhaps on the strength of DiGiorgio's amazing performance alone.

The tracklisting kicks off in stunning fashion with opener "Through the Eyes of Greed" being an outstanding example of the technical thrash metal subgenre. The band weren't done yet though as you'll find a number of other classics scattered across the album. "Machines" & "Echoes of Forever" are utterly brilliant & challenge "Good Rid'nz" from "Swallowed In Black" for Sadus' best work to the time. "Facelift" is also a favourte of mine & when you consider that there are no real lulls on this record you can see why I've awarded it such a high score. As much as I love Sadus' earlier work (including their excellent 1989 "Death To Posers" demo), "A Vision of Misery" simply takes me to another level & I consider it to sit amongst the best couple of releases to come out of the tech thrash subgenre overall. I honestly can't see too many Atheist, Coroner & Ripping Corpse fans not foaming at the mouth over this material so "A Vision of Misery" should be considered to be essential listening for any self-respecting member of The Pit.

4.5/5

Here's my adjusted Top Ten Technical Thrash Releases of All Time list with "A Vision of Misery" now overtaking "Swallowed in Black" to sit just behind Coroner who maintains the number one position:

01. Coroner – “Mental Vortex” (1991)

02. Sadus – “A Vision Of Misery” (1992)

03. Sadus - "Swallowed in Black" (1990)

04. Coroner – “No More Color” (1989)

05. Hellwitch - "Syzygial Miscreancy" (1990)

06. Cryptic Shift – “Visitations From Enceladus” (2020)

07. Ripping Corpse - "Dreaming With The Dead" (1991)

08. KAT - "Bastard" (1992)

09. Obliveon - "From This Day Forward" (1990)

10. Toxik – “World Circus” (1987)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/173