Holy Moses - Finished With the Dogs (1987)^{Release ID: 7574}

What the fuck happened to Holy Moses between debut Queen of Siam and this, the follow-up? I'm guessing someone locked them in a room and played Kreator and Sodom albums at them twenty-four hours a day. Well, either that or they heard Sacrilege's Behind the Realms of Madness and realised that if they wanted to be taken seriously as a female-fronted thrash outfit then they had to up their game. Luckily, that is exactly what they did as this is a million miles away from the NWOBHM-influenced speed metal of that debut. This is gritty and aggressive, neck-breaking thrash with incendiary solos and an impressively evil-sounding, hardcore-influenced vocal performance from Sabina Classen that shits on the likes of Angela Gossow and co.
The album's ten tracks flash by in a head-spinning blur and seem over in a matter of minutes, although it does actually last a little over half an hour and will have you leaping for the replay button, particularly if you are familiar with the debut, as you may not be able to absorb what you just heard. I really don't think you can overstate the improvement this album made over it's predecessor and is such huge leap it has actually made me negatively re-evaluate my rating for the debut. If you are any kind of fan of Eighties thrash you owe it to yourself to check it out... NOW!!

Amazing start to finish

Really surprised at all the ho-hum reviews here for this gem. This is extraordinary punishing, lightning fast and aggressive German thrash. What a HUGE leap this band made between albums. The songwriting is uniformly excellent and the riffage is really unique compared to many of their thrash peers of the era. 

Aside from the aggression, speed and heaviness of "Finished With The Dogs", what sets this apart is the manic energy. See the title track and "In The Slaughterhouse" for good examples of this. Other killer cuts include "Criminal Assault", "Life's Destroyer" and "Military Service". The absolute standout track is the insanely brutal "Current Of Death", which sports a wickedly fast rhythm and some tasty backing vocals from Rage frontman, Peavy Wagner. 

Forget about the fact that this is a female fronted band and sink your teeth into some heavy duty Teutonic thrash. A legit classic of the genre.