Review by Rexorcist for Deathrow - Riders of Doom (1986)

The album starts with the instrumental Winds of Death, which is simple, epic, heavy, but not the most original.  At one point, the intro sounded a lot like For Whom the Bell Tolls, which came out two years earlier.  After the intro, it takes no time at all for the band to head right into the powerful thrash that defined the genre, crossover undertones, King Diamond screams and all.  But it's already much more powerful and effective than any of the early works by Destruction, so this was a bit easier to enjoy.  In fact, the solos in Riders of Doom worked wonders.  It was obvious that this album had a much better idea of what thrash sounded like, even if the production's a little fuzzy for my liking.  Although, this helps the tremolo-picking heavily present on Hell's Ascent, basically adding black metal to the mix.  The riffs on this one are absolutely crazy.  But it doesn't take long for the album to get back to standardly powerful thrashing without much else on their minds.  In fact, some of the actual verses are pretty lame when it comes to writing, and sometimes all I could think of was when they were going to get to the solo.  No metal album should be like that.  So while this is extraordinarily heavy for thrash, even for the time, the riffs and the incredible power are enough to enjoy most of the album throughout while acknowledging the lack of thought put into art and writing, even though the longer songs at the end have a stronger sense of creativity.

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