September 2021 Feature Release – The Pit Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Pit has been nominated by Ben. It's the 1987 debut album "None Shall Defy" from Canadian thrash metallers Infernäl Mäjesty.

https://metal.academy/releases/4013

Great selection Ben. Here are my notes from my last revisit:

The 1987 debut album from Canadian thrash metal outfit Infernäl Mäjesty is an aggressive riff-fest with a dark atmosphere & an impressive level of class in the song-writing & arrangements. Slayer has obviously been a major influence on the band which can't hurt however they offer enough of their own to differentiate themselves from their idols. The guitar solos aren't amazing & the drum production is a little stale however there's a nice level of separation between the instruments. Some of the riff structures hint at what would become death metal & I can't help but shake the thought that Morbid Angel's Trey Azagthoth might have been quite the fan because I can hear some similar ideas here. Overall, this is a very consistent & high quality thrash record that will appeal to fans of Slayer, Razor & Sacrifice.

4/5

This was a really fun one, it fits into the kind of old-school Thrash that I really enjoy. Fast, ripping riffs, interesting vocal melodies, strong bass lines, it seems to have it all. I'm hit or miss on the whole album though, with "Overlord", "None Shall Defy", "Anthology of Death", and "Hell on Earth" (wonky production issues aside) being very high quality but the rest of the album being extremely lukewarm. I can see myself coming back to this one or recommending it to people looking for a lesser known classic thrash album. 

3.5/5

I nearly missed this one which would have been my loss.

Canadians Infernäl Mäjesty operate in the zone of thrash metal that is rabid and putrid without necessarily dropping into blackened territory. Their debut album is a pretty fucking intense experience, even for a hardened thrash metal veteran like me. It is reminiscent of Possessed in terms of the death metal like intensity it generates, but also Slayer as a reference point for how true the thrash credentials are at the same time.

The album suffers an oddity in terms of structure early on with an instrumental track immediately after the opening song. This loses a lot of momentum from the album in all honesty and despite the big build up that goes on during track 3, Night of the Living Dead puts things back on course more from an atmosphere perspective as opposed to reasserting the intensity levels immediately. This is a strange choice of running order - even though it is obvious to see the link with the instrumental as an intro to the horror themed track mentioned above - and one that overall I do not think the record recovers from overall. The feeling of things being a little disjointed thereafter is not entirely shook off at any point, despite the obvious distraction of the thunderous racket that occupies most of the album.

This does not make None Shall Defy a bad album by any means. It is clearly made by a group of young people with all the morbid fascinations of horror, comics and serial killers that you would perhaps expect from the stereotype of thrash metal bands at the time. These dark curiosities transpose well into song writing content and provide the necessary dank sound to the frantic tempos as a reminder that whatever we are racing through there is something vile not too far away, permeating the air with its corrosive odour.

At times it does feel like a much slower version of Slayer as opposed to others where they seem to match the mad thrashing intensity of the aforementioned stars of the genre. Vocalist Chris Bailey does remind me of Tom Araya a lot, and the looping sonics of Steve Terror (yep, I know!) and Kenny Hallman are certainly not a football field away from Hanneman and King. I don't think drummer Rick Nemes quite matches Lombardo in the skill stakes but he still does a great job of bashing his way through the record.

Terrible artwork aside, None Shall Defy is a great old-school thrash metal record that is probably criminally overlooked by most fans of the genre.

4/5