Kublai Khan - Annihilation (1987)^{Release ID: 16842}

1987's "Annihilation" album was unfortunately the only release for this massively underrated & relatively unknown Minneapolis thrash band. Kublai Khan were built around axe-slinging band leader Greg Handevidt whose reputation as an early member of Megadeth back in 1983/84 is validated by an abundance of aggressive thrash riffs & some exciting light-speed solos. Greg's vocals are really pretty powerful too & despite changing his style at regular intervals across the album (check out the obvious Hetfield-isms in the phrasing at times) he proves himself to be a more than capable front man. There's a truck-load of energy on display here & even when you can easily pick up the inspiration for a particular track it's hard not to get sucked in by the up-front execution & no-holds-barred approach to the delivery with elements of speed metal being employed quite regularly & to good effect. In fact, it's really pretty hard to understand how Kublai Khan haven't made a bigger impact (well..... any sort of impact at all) to be honest. There's not a weak track among this lot & I can only guess that it's the inconsistent & unbalanced production job that's prevented Kublai Khan from gaining tier two US thrash success. The guitar solos & snare drum really are ridiculously loud in the mix & the guitar tone & volume changes pretty drastically from track to track. It sounds like they've recorded these songs in completely different sessions & possibly in different studios & that may well be the case but thankfully the old-school tape-trader in me became comfortable with those sort of flaws decades ago so it's not hard to look past. If early Metallica, Testament & Megadeth style thrash & speed metal is your bag (particularly "Kill 'Em All") then I highly recommend that you give this one a spin.