Target (BEL) - Mission Executed (1987)^{Release ID: 18222}

The tale of Belgian thrash metallers Target is only very short but it’s one that deserves to be heard amidst the wealth of unheralded underground thrash stories that have been lost in the annals of time since the genre’s heyday in the mid-to-late 1980’s. I first became aware of Target through tape trading in the early 90’s & remember being quite a fan of both of their late 80’s albums. Sadly, the band wasn’t destined for a long career though & would disintegrate by the time the 90’s rolled around. This is perhaps not such a bad thing for a thrash band given what most of their peers would go through during the grunge years it has to be said. But let’s start with Target’s debut album “Mission Executed” which drifted past most extreme metal fans radars without much fanfare amidst the peak of the thrash metal movement in 1987. 

The album cover for “Mission Executed” is a typically low budget affair that wasn’t exactly going to instill faith in the casual consumer. It looks a lot like some of those ironically put together retro synth wave covers that are floating around these days & you wouldn’t know that what you were in for was a thrash metal record from the look of the sleeve. Given the climate at the time where most record-buying consumers had to take a punt on releases based on word of mouth or the attractiveness of the album cover, it’s not surprising that Target struggled to gain traction. It would have been interesting to see whether they would have been more successful had they had access to the sort of cover art that bands like Kreator were thriving on at the time but I guess we’ll never know. 

The production job on “Mission Executed” seems to have copped a little bit of flack from online reviewers over the years but I have to say that I can’t see where those comments are coming from. Perhaps I’m listening to the remastered version which is apparently much better? I’m not sure but the guitars are rip-roaring & the drums pounding in all the right areas with front man Guy Degrave given lots of room to move so there are no complaints from me in this department. I particularly love the rhythm guitar sound which is nice & raw with a metal as fuck attitude running straight through its core. It certainly adds to the intensity of the band’s sound. 

The delivery of vocalist Guy Degrave sits somewhere in the realm of your classic American thrash front men like Metal Church's David Wayne or Overkill’s Bobby Blitz rather than the more raspy European model. He possesses more than enough balls to make sure that Target’s heavier moments sport a suitably violent accompaniment but can also tackle some more melodic & traditional heavy metal moments without causing a detrimental effect. I really like him although there are a few examples of him overstepping his mark in the theatrics here & there. The twin guitar attack produces an absolute riff-fest though & any thrash fan should find more than enough to bang their head to here. The barrage of riffs are superbly accentuated by drummer Christ Braems who is the highlight of the album in my opinion. He was clearly very well versed in the finer points of thrash drumming because he makes every post a winner here in ensuring that Target receive every last drop of value out of some already high quality riffs. The guitar solos of Lex Vogelaar & Franky Van Aerde seem to get a lot of praise in other reviews but while they’re certainly serviceable I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they add a lot to Target’s music. They just seem to be an excuse to chuck a bunch of notes together without much thought of constructing any sort of sub-plot to the main storyline. 

Target generally seem to be lumped in with the small group of bands that make up the technical thrash metal subgenre but their debut doesn’t really ever produce the sort of complexity required to fit the mould to tell you the truth. It’s much more aligned with the traditional thrash metal model that their American counterparts had cut their teeth on & you can easily hear the influence of bands like Slayer & Exodus. But as the album progresses you’ll likely also pick up on elements of your classic heavy metal sound being borrowed. I’d suggest that these influences are generally coming from the US power metal scene though as there’s still a noticeable crunch to the riffs that was more in line with the bands that fell somewhere in between heavy metal & thrash metal like Metal Church or early Laaz Rockit. You’ll also get a little speed metal thrown in here & there with some simpler & more melodic up-tempo material included on occasion but overall you’ll be left with little doubt that Target were a bunch of passionate thrashers & they were at their best when they were at their most unrestrained & aggressive. 

“Mission Executed” gets off to an absolutely stonking start with the opening two tunes “Mission To The Andes” & “Hordes of Insanity” being genuinely classic European thrash metal anthems that fit right smack bang in the middle of my comfort zone. In fact, upon my first revisit last week I got quite excited, thinking that perhaps I’d uncovered an unheralded underground classic that I’d been forgetting about for all these years. But the quality certainly drops off after that initial onslaught & the music gets a touch less trashy for a couple of tracks. These are still very enjoyable mind you. Just not at the same quality as the earlier numbers. It’s interesting that Target’s less impressive output tends to match up with the songs where they haven’t quite nailed the song structures. They’ll sometimes extend the segways further than they needed to or try to include too many riffs in a song for the sake of it. But there are no real failures here because Target are a class act & the quality & professionalism of their music is able to get them by even during these less impressive periods. Closing track “Death Blow” is a great way to end proceedings & you’ll rarely hear a better instrumental track on a thrash record. 

I have to say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by “Mission Executed”. This is one high quality thrash record that’s been criminally overlooked in favour of a significant amount of inferior product, especially in the European market. I highly recommend you give it a few spins if you’re serious about your thrash. 

For fans of: Deathrow, Metal Church, Flotsam & Jetsam