Daniel's Reviews

The European brand of power metal & I have had a particularly rocky relationship over the years. There are elements of most of the classic releases that I find appealing but (with the exception of one or two bands) they’re generally squashed by a whole crap-tonne of cheese. However since the Metal Academy podcast reached the 1985 period three or four years ago I’ve been making a lot more of an effort to give the more highly regarded power metal records a bit more time & attention in the hope that I’ll finally be converted & I have to admit that, even though I’ve had mixed results to date, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that I can actually stomach a lot more releases than I would have previously thought. One of those releases was our December feature release for The Guardians clan in Gamma Ray’s 2000 “Blast From The Past” double album which offered enough appeal to me to overcome some of the more dairy rich content. I was particularly keen on the material that took more of a traditional heavy metal approach as the band really managed to pull off a few stellar Judas Priest imitations. So this left me thinking… is it time to revisit Gamma Ray’s classic 1995 album “Land Of The Free” to see if I’d been too harsh on it in the past? Or perhaps my taste has now broadened enough to cope with the elements that were previously deal breakers for me? Time would tell but it’s worth noting that I started with a 2.5 star rating from way back in the day.

The first thing I noticed when revisiting “Land Of The Free” was the excellent production & musicianship on display. I mean Gamma Ray were clearly a well qualified & established group of musicians by that stage & you can hear it pretty easily here. The dual guitar attack were particularly impressive & their lead solos represent many of the highlight moments across the tracklisting. It’s also worth noting that front man Kai Hansen’s vocal delivery had improved remarkably since his time in Helloween & I especially enjoy the parts where he draws his inspiration from Judas Priest front man Rob Halford. No doubt he’d get better at that over the coming years too.

It has to be said that Gamma Ray’s sound was metal as fuck on this record. In fact, “Land Of The Free” really is a glorification of everything it means to be metal. Much like “Blast From The Past”, there are a few tracks that crossover into your more traditional heavy metal territory & there was a sense of inevitability about the fact that my favourite numbers generally line up with the moments when the power metal-ometer displays its lower readings. Given my strong penchant for the more extreme end of metal, I’ve always found the European power metal that’s built around a speed metal backbone to be less appealing than that which leans more towards your Priests & Maidens. I think it’s got to do with the simplicity of the faster tremolo-picked backing & the noticeable lack of riffs to an extent but those sort of tracks also tend to favour your more uplifting & cheesy choruses which are really the big elephant in the room whenever I’m sitting down for a power metal session.

“Land Of The Free” opens & closes with its strongest material in my opinion with the epic nine minute opener “Rebellion In Dreamland” seeing Gamma Ray kicking off with their biggest gun. Unfortunately though, that early promise doesn’t lead to an album of consistent merit (at least not for me personally) & I was disappointed to find that my improved tolerance for power metal hasn’t in turn seen me finding this record to be much less of a struggle than I found it to be previously. The faster speed metal driven tracks fit very comfortably under the description in the last paragraph & I almost invariably find their choruses to be pretty hard going. The chorus from “Time To break Free” sounds like it was stolen from a poppy country & western hit for God’s sakes while the ballad “Farewell” lays the cheese on in thick slices that see my stomach struggling with lactose intolerance. “All Of The Damned” is a pretty decent number & so is the thirty-nine seconds of “The Saviour” however there wasn’t really much else here to interest me besides the two bookends, despite there not being any real garbage on offer.

Ultimately it just comes down to taste though to be honest. I can easily see why power metal fans hold “Land Of The Free” in such high regard as it’s extremely well written & executed but I can’t see a time when I’ll be able to accept some of the elements at play here. There’s merit in most of this material however too much of it is tainted by obvious attempts to sound epic or simplistic gang-vocal led melodic chorus hooks. I did quite like the “Blast From The Past” double album though so perhaps all is not lost with Gamma Ray yet & a little persistence may see me being rewarded in other parts of their back catalogue.

For fans of Helloween, Blind Guardian & Judas Priest.

Wichita-based epic heavy/power metal outfit Manilla Road have always been an interesting one for me personally. On the one hand, I always find their records to be intriguing, mainly because they've developed their own unique sound, image & mystique. On the other, I never seem to find myself getting past that point. I find them interesting but not overly engaging so I don't often feel the need to return to them. Anyway... I recently realised that I had a small gap in my coverage of Manilla's Road's classic era releases as I hadn't rated 1986's highly regarded 1986 album "The Deluge" despite having generally enjoyed the records either side of it so I decided to remedy that.

"The Deluge" very much represents the missing link between my two favourite Manilla Road records in 1985's "Open The Gates" & 1987's "Mystification". It still sounds inherently like Manilla Road & offers all of the characteristics they built their strong underground following on however it's also significantly thrashier than the band's earlier records. In fact, you'll find very little of the doomier material that was evident in years gone past & there's also less of a reliance on their psychedelic/progressive rock influences, despite the obvious hints at Rush that are still fairly evident. The track lengths are mostly very short with only three of the ten tracks on offer breaching the three minute mark. The impact of more aggressive thrash metal of Slayer's "Show No Mercy" album is easily identifiable however "The Deluge" never feels like legitimate thrash due to the more epic atmosphere Manilla Road always manage to create, mainly due to the unique contribution of front man Mark Shelton whose higher register voice & transcendental lyrics place the Road into a space that only they have access to.

But despite the unique Manilla Road sound, I do think that "The Deluge" suffers a little bit from repetition as much of it sounds pretty similar & familiar. Shelton's lead work is always a major component of the band's sound & he doesn't disappoint here however there's a samey-ness to some his contributions this time. Perhaps it's due to the consistently higher tempos that push this record out into US power metal territory when I've always questioned the validity of that term with the Road's earlier works. Randy Foxe's drumming is very raw & energetic but I don't think he delivers quite the precision that made such an impression on me with "Mystification" from the following year.

As is usually the case with Manilla Road, it's the longer & more expansive tracks that end up being the most gratifying with the eight minute title track being the most captivating & adventurous. But in saying that, I still don't think it ever gets me out of second gear & that's a point worth noting about "The Deluge". There's a lot of good material here but I can't say that any of these tracks reach great status for me personally. Without any genuine highlight tracks, the tracklisting just seems to fly past fairly quickly as you wait for something that never eventuates. Plus, the album kinda peters out at the end with a couple of the weaker inclusions on the tracklisting which doesn't leave me wanting to race back to start it all over again.

Still... "The Deluge" is yet another interesting if comparatively uneventful album from Manilla Road. The thrashier approach certainly gave it a more incisive edge however it was at the expense of some of the components that I most enjoyed about the band's sound so I'm left feeling fairly neutral about it overall.

For fans of Brocas Helm, Omen & Eternal Champion.

As many of you would likely know by now, Florida heavy legends Savatage have never offered me much appeal & I've always regarded their immense underground popularity as somewhat of a mystery. I've given their supposed classics revisit after revisit over the years but still seem to be no closer to figuring out what it is that people see in them. Sure, lead guitarist Criss Oliva is an absolute virtuoso of the highest order but that's really all that they offer as far as I can see & you'll rarely find a better example of that than their highly praised 1989 fifth album "Gutter Ballet".

Rightly or wrongly, Savatage have always been tied to the US power metal scene for one reason or another. The term was first devised to label an early-to-mid 80's US movement that saw many bands dropping the hard rock backbone that the NWOBHM had been holding on to & blurring the lines between heavy metal, speed metal & thrash metal via a chunkier guitar sound & more aggressive riffage. It's always seemed strange to me that Savatage were attached to that particular movement as (unlike bands like Metal Church & Omen) they simply aren't any heavier than most of your major NWOBHM acts. It seems like front man Jon Oliva's overly theatrical delivery & the band's more progressive approach have fooled people into believing that there's some reason to differentiate them from the heavy metal masses but if you really break it down there's absolutely no need for it, even with their earlier works which were significantly more metal than "Gutter Ballet".

But despite their previous links to US power metal, "Gutter Ballet" sees even those who clutch onto that ideal with the firmest grip starting to loosen it a little because it was this album that saw the band starting to drift away from the rest of their peers by experimenting in some fairly uncharted territory. It's been pretty widely publicized that this album was heavily influenced by an epiphany that came over Jon Oliva while watching a theatre performance of "The Phantom Of The Opera" & this led to Jon making a change in his song-writing style that resulted in Savatage taking on an increasingly theatrical style. There are definitely some songs where that is more obvious than others but I think it's fair to say that it's one of the more noteworthy features of the album. The other is the stronger influence of Pink Floyd's 1979-83 concept albums & The Beatles' later material on the Savatage sound as it sees "Gutter Ballet" taking on a similar aesthetic during the more introspective moments. But unlike those two super heavy-weights of progressive rock & psychedelic pop, Savatage don't quite seem to know where the line between artistic expression & self-indulgence is. I don't mind the greatly increased use of piano & symphonics in Savatage's sound but it's Jon Oliva's clear lack of understanding of his own technical limitations & apparent passion for camp Queen-style operatics that really get my goat.

It's not all doom & gloom though. There are several really decent track included here, particularly those that see Criss moving closer to the forefront at the expense of his brother. The clear highlights for me are the three minute instrumental excursion "Temptation Revelation" (which serves as a nice platform for Criss to showcase both his technical artistry & an impeccable sense of melody) & the closing track on the CD version of the album "Thorazine Shuffle" (which is about as heavy as Savatage get on the album & leaves me baffled as to why they'd leave it off the vinyl version). A couple of the heavier filler tracks like "She's In Love" & "The Unholy" are pretty good too, as is Criss' short folk guitar interlude "Silk & Steel". Interestingly, none of these are the tracks that "Gutter Ballet" is known for though & it's a very clear indication that you don't get on with a band when their most popular songs are the ones that you dislike the most. My ears simply can't tolerate the sheer pomp & cheese that goes on in the ballads on this album. The title track & "When The Crowds Are Gone" seem to sit amongst the most popular tracks of Savatage's career but they give me similar reactions to hearing fingernails being scraped down a chalkboard & "Summer's Rain" doesn't fair all that much better to be honest. Heavier material like "Of Rage & War" & "Hounds" certainly sounded a lot stronger on the "Ghost in the Ruins: A Tribute to Criss Oliva" live album (as did the title track to be fair) but here they suffer from some seriously inadequate chorus hooks that sound very forced & leave me a little dumbfounded as to how people deem them to be acceptable.

Given my score though, it's clear that I appreciate the effort that Savatage have made to do something a little different here & those four or five tracks that I enjoyed do tend to overcome the less appealing balladry to an extent but it's not enough to save "Gutter Ballet" from being yet another Savatage record that failed to captivate me. It would certainly represent somewhat of a turning point in their career as the elements that were initially incorporated here would be explored further in the coming years but I can't say that this is something that excites this ol' metalhead too much as I don't honestly think I'll ever be able to cope with a Jon Oliva-fronted Savatage record if I'm being completely open & transparent. Oh well.... where the fuck is my Bathory collection when I need it??

For fans of Circle II Circle, Queensryche & Virgin Steele.

It's been many years since I've revisited Swedish death metallers Necrophobic's 1993 debut album "The Nocturnal Silence" but I still find it to be a very solid piece of work. Whilst you'll harbor very few doubts that they hail from Swedish origins once the needle hits the wax, Necrophobic (who were led by Dark Funeral guitarist Blackmoon) had a lot more feathers in their caps than many of their contemporaries & you'll hear all sorts of influences popping up here as they do their very best to name drop almost every great death/thrash/black metal band of the early 1990's & do it all with great aplomb too.

The early Necrophobic sound seems to have been put together by combining the various different elements they were hearing from their local Stockholm scene at the time as far as I can see. You had the classic old-school death metal of Dismember, the melodic black metal of Dissection & the melodic death metal of Unanimated, all fused together & mixed in with regular Bathory references & one-off hints at international acts like Death, Deicide, Obituary, Bolt Thrower, Slayer, Emperor, etc. In fact, I'd suggest that they've borrowed their evil lyrical themes & imagery from Dissection & Deicide too if I'm not mistaken. I wouldn't say that this results in a product that's particularly focused or well defined but the band certainly had the skills to pull it off &, when combined with a production job that offers a good balance of underground rawness & melodic clarity, the result is a fairly accessible yet energetic extreme metal release that's tailor made for an audience that favours a melodic, crunchy & undeniably Swedish brand of death metal.

For fans of Dissection, Unanimated & Dismember.

I can still very vividly remember the first time I experienced the stunning intensity of New Jersey mathcore exponents The Dillinger Escape Plan. It was some time in the mid-2000’s & I was completely immersed in the techno scene after having grown tired of metal & taking a break from it completely around 1998. My brother Ben had come over to my apartment for a visit & he’d come armed with a collection of tracks he’d been wanting to show me in order to highlight the best work the metal scene had to offer at the time. I’m not sure if he was hoping to lure me back to metal or not but I have to admit that I wasn’t terribly open to returning at that stage. I did however have a strong interest in seeing what I was missing &, of all of the material that he showed me that night, one track stood out from the rest fairly comfortably & would stay with me for all of the years that have followed. The psychotic blast of energy that is The Dillinger Escape Plan’s “43% Burnt” completely blew my mind that night with its unbridled ferocity, over-the-top complexity & sheer ambition. It certainly didn’t fall into my musical comfort zone but it did manage to leave me questioning if the metal scene still had some fresh new ideas for me after all. I’d eventually return to metal in 2009 & made a point of familiarizing myself with the Dillinger back catalogue with extreme priority.

In general, I’ve enjoyed everything The Dillinger Escape Plan have put out without ever really feeling that I could fully relate to their sound enough to claim any individual release as a genuine classic for me personally. I’m not entirely sure why that’s the case as I’ve managed to overcome that obstacle with several other mathcore exponents but with Dillinger I inevitably find myself to be very impressed but can never seem to find a higher rating than 4/5 & that’s still the case with 2013’s classic fifth album “One Of Us Is The Killer”. It’s a different record to anything they’d produced previously without ever seeming to alienate the band’s existing fanbase. The technical complexity factor is as spasmatic as ever with the band experimenting with some incredibly off-beat & mind-bending rhythms but there’s somehow a greater level of accessibility at the same time. The incorporation of some strong melodic hooks on songs like the title track & “Nothing’s Funny” will likely see the well-informed listener reaching for comparisons with alternative metal legends Faith No More, particularly the vocal performance of Greg Puciato who seems to have been heavily influenced by the off-the-wall yet incredibly capable vocal stylings of Mike Patton. He's an enormous talent really. I can't possibly imagine how shredded his vocal chords must be after recording an album like this one as he truly screams his fucking lungs out across a large part of the run time but he also proves himself to have a great understanding of musicality & melody when he chooses to explore it.

If you really look at Dillinger’s delivery closely here you’ll find that the band’s sound is built on hardcore more than it is on metal. There’s an uncompromising urgency & aggression about everything they do that keeps the listener on the edge of their seat at all times. The incredible intricacy in their rhythms is both their strength & their enemy in my opinion as not only does it ensure that I’m always interested & engaged but it also sees me often struggling to find a groove that sees me banging my head like I want to do when listening to good metal. In a way I think this sees a lot of Dillinger’s material simply washing over me in a wave of vitriolic electricity without seeing as much of it sticking as I’d like & this is never made more clearly apparent than when they finally get the balance just right. The final two tracks on “One Of Us Is The Killer” (album highlight “Crossburner” & “The Threat Posed By Nuclear Weapons”) are absolutely killer & fall very much into this category. To be honest, I think the key reason I feel that way is because they have simpler, heavier metal riffs interspersed between the chaos & this gives this old metalhead a little more meat on the bones of Dillinger’s spasmatic hardcore sound. It’s strange that they left those two tracks till right at the end but this isn’t to say that there’s anything like a weak song or even a half-decent filler track amongst this lot. It’s all high quality stuff but it’s only the final climax that sees me fully letting go & succumbing to The Dillinger Escape Plan’s incredibly detailed plan of escape.

Overall, I think “One Of Us Is The Killer” is another very strong DEP record. It’s pretty incredible that they managed to maintain their screaming intensity & ridiculous technicality whilst simultaneously infusing their sound with an additional layer of accessibility but it’s paid off for them big-time here. Is it their best release? Perhaps… but it’s hard to compare their records as they’re all so similar in terms of quality. If pushed though, I’d suggest that I’d take this album over a record like “Irony Is A Dead Scene” which seems to be extremely highly regarded these days. Dillinger represented a breath of fresh air for a scene over-flowing with followers & I’m not sure that we’ve found anyone to fill that gap since their unfortunate departure. I’ll always have the fondest memories of experiencing this material in a live environment as there simply isn’t anything to compare to the violence & excitement of a Dillinger live show.

For fans of The Callous Daoboys, Botch & Rolo Tomassi.

As a fan of the more intense European thrash metal sound, last year's third album from Swiss five-piece Total Annihilation (entitled "...On Chains Of Doom") ticks a lot of my musical boxes. It's beautifully produced with a seriously brutal guitar tone that's more in line with death metal than it is thrash. It's also very tightly executed with the band working well within their technical limitations to give us a relentless brand of thrash that's not afraid to slow things down for some crunchy doom style sections on occasion. Front man Daniel Altwegg has a grindy & fairly monotonous European style of vocal delivery that keeps Total Annihilation firmly situated in the underground & the total run time is just about right for a modern thrash record. So it's needless to say that I quite enjoyed "...On Chains Of Doom".

What's stopping me from reaching for the higher ratings is a few things. Firstly, the composition is lacking in ambition & the construction of the riffs is relatively basic which brings some of these tracks an element of heard-it-all-before. The song-writing is also a little lacking in the way of memorability with none of these tracks standing out as particular highlights despite only one track falling short of an acceptable standard (see "Experience The Terror"). And finally, the guitar solos are very ordinary & don't really serve much of a purpose as they don't enhance the music in any way. It's pretty obvious that this is merely a technical limitation & if I were in the band I would have advised against including them at all.

But, all criticisms aside, "...On Chains Of Doom" is a very heavy & generally enjoyable thrash record that makes up for its flaws with pure aggression & a good understanding of what makes underground thrash special. In fact, I'd take it over the more highly regarded 2020 Warbringer & Hexecutor albums we featured recently.

For fans of Legion Of The Damned, late 80's Kreator & "Agent Orange"-era Sodom.

Ok, so it'll shock approximately no one that 1997's "Enter" debut from Dutch gothic doom metal exponents Within Temptation wasn't for me but perhaps not for the reasons that many of you might suspect. I did hear bits of Within Temptation back in their early days but never paid a lot of attention to them given that my taste in metal was on the polar opposite end of the metal spectrum & that's still essentially the case. I mean, despite the link to the gothic doom metal movement, "Enter" isn't all that far away from the band's later symphonic metal label given that around half of the tracklisting would likely qualify for that tag when examined in isolation. Sure, the strongest element at play & the most comfortable way to pigeonhole "Enter" is via the gothic metal subgenre but there sure is a lot of synth work going on around it. Also, any metal fan worth their studded battle vest would be remiss to overlook the fact that the majority of the riffage is based purely on 1990's death doom metal &, given the inclusion of cookie monster vocals in roughly half of the tracklisting, it's no surprise that "Enter" is often linked with doom metal.

Surprisingly, the female vocals of Sharon den Adel are the clear highlight of the album for me & I definitely prefer the sections where she takes centre-stage whilst accompanied by predominantly clean instrumentation. The more extreme end of Within Temptation's sound was still very much an evolving concept at the time & is far less convincing here. In fact, the musicianship on display is a significant stumbling block for me given that the instrumentalists were so clearly still learning their craft, particularly the guitarists who suffered from a poor production job & aren't exactly convincing with their re-enactments of these slow-paced & simple doom riffs. Keyboardist Martijn Westerholt also struggles for timing on occasion &, more often than not, his chosen synthesizers sound pretty dated too. This isn't an attractive look given my pre-existing repulsion towards synth-driven metal. And finally, the death growls of guitarist Robert Westerholt rank relatively poorly when compared with other half-decent cookie monster wannabes.

So it might sound like there's really not all that much going for "Enter" & that's true to an extent however I still find myself enjoying a good half of the eight tracks included & that enjoyment inevitably lines up with the tracks that utilize less of the synthesizers & death growls & more of Sharon's sweet vocal lines. There's no doubt that Within Temptation cross the line into being over-dramatic a little too often for my liking but when they hit on something with a little more maturity about it I find myself struggling to maintain my general feeling of apathy. One can tell that there are some good ideas in there somewhere but the band are still a little too green to know what to do with them. Then there are a couple of real shockers in "Gatekeeper" & "Blooded" which see me genuinely struggling to keep from offloading a cringe-faced look of revulsion.

Ultimately, there's little doubt that I'm not the target audience for a record like "Enter" but, at the same time, there are far too many flaws for it to overcome here & I can't see myself returning to the album any time soon.

Apparently I rated Canadian progressive metal maestro Devin Townsend's 2009 album "Addicted" (his second effort under the Devin Townsend Project moniker) around the time of release & wasn't much of a fan of it which really does show that my tastes in metal are still changing even 37 years after first becoming enamored with the genre. Or perhaps I've just developed the patience to give music that sits outside of my usual comfort zone a chance to dig it's teeth in. If I had to guess I'd suggest that it's a little bit of both but probably more that latter than the former.

Anyway... I've given "Addicted" a few revisits this morning & found that I quite liked it but wouldn't class it as essential listening. Sure it incorporates some new elements (like the electronic component & the addition of former The Gathering front woman Anneke van Giersbergen) but the end result still sounds like Devin with his trademark wall of melodic sound. Unsurprisingly, all of the various ingredients have been beautifully integrated. In fact, Devin really should send the album to Megadeth band leader Dave Mustaine so that he can see how albums like "Risk" & "The World Needs A Hero" should have sounded as the boys seem to have had similar ideas but produced vastly different results with a wide disparity in regards to quality.

Anneke has sat amongst my favourite female metal vocalists (if not THE favourite) for a very long time now so I welcomed the collaboration. She certainly sounds great here too but I do prefer to hear her voice being highlighted a little more than it is amidst Devin's huge soundscapes. The production is obviously outstanding though & this gives some of the middling tracks the grunt required to see them getting over the line. The guitar tone is heavy as shit while Ryan Van Poederooyen puts in a stellar performance behind the drum kit.

It's interesting that many fans seem to regard this album as an industrial metal record. Sure there are some electronic elements at play here but there's not a consistently industrial/mechanical atmosphere. "Addicted" is far more uplifting that that & I'm actually fine with the alternative metal tag as a lot of this material looks to remove some of the boundaries that separate metal from your more accessible styles whilst always maintaining a predominantly metal aesthetic. Despite the general consensus, when you examine the tracklisting as a whole you'll find that "Addicted" isn't really much poppier than Devin has dished out before either & I do think that saying it incorporates "dance music" is a stretch too as the electronics are used purely for colour & there aren't too many artificial dance beats included here.

Overall, I think "Addicted" had the potential to be a really great album given the quality of the production, performances & most of the hooks but there's a major flaw that prevents me from scoring it as highly as I'd like to. Unfortunately the tracklisting is let down by a couple of weak commercially focused tracks (i.e. "Bend It Like Bender!" & particularly the soppy ballad "Ih-Ah!") which combine to bring my score down by a half-star. Otherwise there's plenty of meat for Devin's fanatical audience to dig their teeth into here with the clear album highlight "Supercrush!" sitting amongst the best work of Devin's entire career.

So look... if you love highly technical, complex & precise yet still extreme metal then "Feeding The Abscess" should be a no-brainer as it's a beautifully composed, produced & executed record that almost defies genrification. If that doesn't sound like your bag then I'd advise you to steer well clear of it. Martyr are super talented & pull off some amazing rhythmic stunts but you really do have to be onboard with that idea or you'll likely struggle due to the reliance on showmanship over song-writing. Looking back now, Martyr do seem like a bit of a supergroup in that bassist front man Daniel Mongrain was formally of Cryptopsy & Gorguts & is currently with Voivod while drummer Patrice Hamelin is the current drummer in Gorguts & none of that is surprising when you hear "Feeding The Abscess" for the first time. These dudes fucking know their way around their instruments & the precision on display is nothing short of phenomenal.

I really do think the technical death metal tag is a little limiting here because Martyr's sound never feels constrained by the death metal genre. Sure there are blast beats, some grindy death metal riffs here & there & the occasional death grunt but the majority of the album is much more progressive than that & Daniel Mongrain's vocals generally sit much closer to thrash than they do to death metal. In fact, they're really the limiting factor with this release as Daniel's monotonous tone & phrasing sees Martyr failing to reach the top tier despite the band's clear credentials. This is an outstanding record from an instrumental point of view & I can't help but think that the band would have been better served by employing a) a higher register clean vocalist that adds a layer of melody & memorability to the equation or b) a full-on death grunter who can accentuate the brutality in Martyr's sound. What they've gone for here seems to have taken an each-way bet that hasn't quite satisfied either preference.

The production is spectacular, mind you, & if you're a fan of progressive metal in general then you'll likely get a fair bit of enjoyment out of the no-holds-barred approach "Feeding The Abscess" takes with regards to composition. There are very few rules being adhered to here & the level of musicianship required to achieve the final result is nothing short of mind-blowing. I particularly enjoy the drumming & lead guitar work, both of which are accentuated by the outstanding production. Just listen to the depth in those kick drums for example.

Overall, "Feeding The Abscess" is a great choice for a feature album & with some more interesting vocals it may just have gone on to be known as a classic release. I'm just not sure The Horde was the right place for it to be honest because it's more of a progressive metal record than it is a death metal one in my opinion. The Voivod cover version that closes the album could have been a little more adventurous too because it's really just a straight reenactment & doesn't offer any point of difference which leaves it standing out a little bit from the rest of the tracklisting.

For fans of Atheist, "Dimension Hatross"-era Voivod & Death's more progressive releases.

Wow! I had no idea what I was in for with this monster of a record. The scope & breadth of the "industrial metal" subgenre tag is simply not wide enough to encompass all of the elements at play here. I wasn't aware of it until now but God was essentially a supergroup project of sorts with approximately ten experienced musicians contributing to an epic 79 minutes of unapologetically experimental & highly challenging music made specifically for open-minded music fans with a taste for the cerebral & psychedelic. Most of the individual names were completely foreign to me but I can certainly hear the experience & talent in what they've delivered.

Many reviewers will probably suggest that "The Anatomy Of Addiction" is overly repetitive but I think that's just an indication that a lot of people don't have the patience required for this sort of art which aims directly for your cerebral cortex a lot of the time. Upon first listen you'll be left in no doubt whatsoever of the presence of Godflesh/Jesu mastermind Justin Broadrick as there are tracks here that sound exactly like classic Godflesh with some additional elements thrown into the mix. However possibly even more of the tracklisting is closer to the sound of Swans' more expansive experimental rock excursions with long, slowly-building & repetitive tracks that are full of tension & atmosphere. The jazz component is noteworthy with the more insane saxophone use reminding me of Naked City & the more laidback moments hinting at the influence of Miles Davis' late 60's/early 70's jazz fusion period. You'll also detect a significant dose of dub in the way that some of these pieces are structured, especially in the use of the bass guitar as a musical protagonist on some of the more extended & expansive tracks with the guitar & saxophone being used more for colour & texture than melody. There's a tribal percussion element at play too which really adds to the atmosphere without ever pushing things into ambient territory. Honestly, the vocals of Kevin Martin might as well by Justin Broadrick because they sound so similar that you'd be forgiven for thinking it was indeed him. Kevin's broken & repetitive phrasing & lyrical style is basically identical to Justin's trademark bark & it leaves me with a welcome feeling of familiarity a lot of the time.

This is truly intriguing & interesting stuff & I never find myself getting bored despite the excessive length of the album. There are no weak tracks with God exuding an air of class & consistency about everything they touch. The few highlight tracks are nothing short of magnificent & leave me disappointed that I can't rate the album a little higher than I have. I guess I just can't quite see "The Anatomy Of Addiction" becoming an all-time favourite despite the fact that I have difficulty in faulting it. I think that's because I find a good portion of the tracklisting to leave me thoroughly impressed with the ambition & execution but not quite drooling uncontrollably due to the lack of a knockout punch. Nonetheless, I can't recommend the album enough to people that are interested in a more cerebral & internally focused brand of experimental rock/metal music. That certainly won't be everyone & if you find that you don't get it then you'll likely be in good company. Those that do have the patience for a record like this one will being thoroughly rewarded for the effort though. And another thing... don't even think about giving it a one-off spin because it needs a little more time than that.

For fans of Godflesh, Swans & Naked City.

Manilla Road & I have had a hit-&-miss relationship over the years. I quite liked their progressive rock-driven 1980 debut album "Invasion" but found the follow-up "Metal" to be disappointing. Strangely, their third album "Crystal Logic" (which is generally regarded as their best work & an unmitigated classic) did even less for me but 1985's "Open The Gates" saw my interest being restored with several incredible pieces appearing across a generally inconsistent tracklisting. So I guess it's fair to say that I approached "Mystification" fairly tentatively which may be why I didn't give it a revisit until now.

"Mystification" may still sound very much like a Manilla Road album but it's also a very different beast to the other material I've heard from the band to date. For starters, this is the first time that I've had absolutely no question about a Manilla Road album's US power metal status. It's a noticeably thrashier affair than their early 80's records were with only a couple of tunes that fit comfortably under the heavy metal banner. The rest offer significantly more velocity & aggression than you'd usually expect from a classic metal band however Mark Shelton's higher register vocal performance generally keeps Manilla Road from completely crossing over into speed/thrash metal territory as he possesses a theatricality that definitely ties them to power metal. The short & high energy "Up From the Crypt" is probably the only exception with its slightly more grunty delivery & it's clear that bands like Slayer have had a significant impact on Mark & his band by this stage. Just check out that start of "Masque of the Red Death" if you don't believe me.

The performances are really quite brilliant, particularly Mark's lead guitar work & the exciting drumming of Randy Foxe who plays like a man possessed for the most part with his drum-rolls being a clear highlight. Unsurprisingly, I do struggle to connect with Mark's "epic" vocal delivery a little though & that's always been a bit of a stumbling block for me to tell you the truth. I'm always left wishing that he'd spend more time shredding away on his axe with that unpolished yet infectious technique of his rather than posing some dark & mystical question to me vocally. Some of his earlier works included more lower register grunt work than "Mystification" does & I think that's a shame as I do like that style a little better. Mark's guitar solos always sound like he's improvised the whole thing on the spot &, despite his clear command of his instrument, they're more to do with atmosphere than they are to do with chops which is something I have a lot of appreciation for. In fact, you could say similar things of the production job which gives Manilla Road that mid-80's underground authenticity that a lot of modern bands lack & that's always been a strength for the band.

Overall, this is clearly the most consistent Manilla Road record I've heard to date as there are no weak tracks included. But in saying that, I don't think we get the enormous highlights that a record like "Open The Gates" offered. I think perhaps the additional thrashiness of "Mystification" has seen Manilla Road losing a little bit of the psychedelia that I loved so much about their better earlier works. For that reason, "Open The Gates" still maintains the title of my favourite Manilla Road release however "Mystification" is another interesting album from a band that I generally maintain an appreciation for but are unlikely to ever quite connect with on the same level as the rest of the underground seem to.

For fans of Brocas Helm, Omen & Eternal Champion.

I'd suggest that 2007's "V: Hävitetty" album from Finnish folk metallers Moonsorrow is one of the most definitive releases for The North in that it really encapsulates elements of all three major genres housed by the clan. It never feels like black metal however it certainly borrows plenty of tools from its more evil brethren. To my ears it's just as much of a Viking metal record as it is a folk metal one though as it's not only got plenty of theatrical hints at longboats & the like but it's also got that rolling, epic feel you expect from Viking metal. You'll also find some progressive flourishes in the synthesizer use at times although anyone suggesting that this is a progressive release is overstating things.

I first encountered Moonsorrow very quickly after my return to metal in 2009. I'd noticed that their 2005 album "Verisäkeet" was very highly regarded so I thought I'd better check it out. Unfortunately I found myself struggling with it for all of the reasons that I struggle with folk metal in general. The folk melodies just don't appeal to me & I find that this takes most of the intensity out of the music for me. But after experimenting a bit more with the rest of Moonsorrow's back catalogue I'd find that they'd undergone a gradual transformation that would see me identifying more & more to grab onto with each subsequent release. I utterly despise their first couple of albums "Suden uni" & "Voimasta ja kunniasta" but 2003's "Kivenkantaja" & 2005's "Verisäkeet" both saw them edging progressively a touch closer to my affection without ever really threatening to become something I'd class as being genuinely enjoyable. Looking back now I can easily see that Moonsorrow's ability to provide me with any sort of value is generally dependent on what the ratio of folk-to-Viking is like. They seem to have gradually added more of the Viking-period Bathory influences in over time whilst toning back the folk metal cheese & that's definitely a good thing for me. And this bring us to their fifth album "V: Hävitetty" which finally sees Moonsorrow breaching my tough exterior & offering me some sort of appeal.

"V: Hävitetty" is a little bit of a frustrating album for me though. It starts off in the most awe-inspiring fashion with the first third of the immense 30 minute opener "Jäästä syntynyt / Varjojen virta" being nothing short of mind-blowing & leading me to question whether I'm in for a significantly more noteworthy experience. The next ten minute section sees the quality dropping back a bit but maintaining a solid level before the last third unfortunately signals the arrival of some of those cheesier folk metal extravagances that I find so grating. Overall it makes for an enjoyable listen but I can't help but feel that it was a missed opportunity. The other huge track "Tuleen ajettu maa" sees things dipping a little further with several sections that are just so consciously trying to sound epic & the heavier sections being almost cancelled out by the most unintimidating synthesizers & folk instrumentation. It's beautifully produced, performed & executed of course which is always the case with this band but it just sits so far outside of my comfort zone that I find myself squirming all the time even if I can appreciate the clear artistic value. So my main concern with "V: Hävitetty" is that I find it progressively less appealing across the span of its run time & it leaves me feeling a touch disappointed at the end even though I never feel my effort was wasted. Thankfully "Jäästä syntynyt / Varjojen virta" is strong enough to make this the first Moonsorrow album to offer me a reasonable level of appeal as an overall package.

For fans of Falkenbach, Finsterforst & Månegarm.

This relatively underground late 80's release offers some very raw Colombian black metal that draws influence from Parabellum, early Bathory & "In The Sign Of Evil" era Sodom. I seem to recall receiving this & fellow Colombians Parabellum's "Sacrilegio" E.P. on the same side of a cassette from a Peruvian tape trader way back in the day. Neither release did much for me if I'm honest but if pushed I'd suggest that I have a slight preference for the insanity-ridden Parabellum sound. Interestingly, Blasfemia share some band members with Parabellum & if you like "Sacrilegio" then you'll probably dig "Guerra total" as well.

Two of the four songs presented on "Guerra total" are really pretty good & those inevitably line up with the moments when the band can keep their shit together (see " Presagio" & "Más allá de la ignorancia"). The other two songs show promise but end up falling in a bit of a heap due to the band's technical & compositional limitations. The band can't play for shit obviously but that's par for the course with early South American extreme metal. I really love the Quorthon style vocals on three of the four tracks. They're evil as fuck & suit the primitive nature of the instrumentation beautifully. The other track "Postmortem" has more of a blackened thrash sound than the rest of the material which is pure black metal.  

It's so easy to hear where a band like Mayhem may have pulled the pieces of their genre-defining second wave black metal sound from when you hear a release like this as all the ingredients are already there, only they're presented in a much cruder format. The hardcore influenced sections are invariably the most relevant & over the years I've built a strong opinion that hardcore punk was the critical element in the creation of the modern black metal sound. I don't think the South Americans get enough credit for the role they played in that regard to be honest but that doesn't immediately mean that I have to like their music.

I quite enjoyed former S.O.D. front man Billy Milano's 1987 comeback album "U.S.A. For M.O.D.". It may have lacked the overall impact of S.O.D.'s legendary "Speak English Or Die" album but M.O.D. certainly offered enough quality New York crossover thrash to keep me interested at that point. The same unfortunately can't be said for Billy's follow-up release from the following year with the novelty E.P. "Surfin' M.O.D." not only showcasing an entirely new lineup but also being a complete piss-take which is not really what I look for in my metal.

"Surfin' M.O.D." is based around a surfing concept with the A-side taking the form of a single 23 minute piece referred to as "The Movie". This epic work compiles a collection of six genuine songs (three of them disappointing cover versions of 60's & 70's pop songs) interspersed with humorous samples from the surfing movie "Back To the Beach". The B-side simply isolates the six songs & adds an additional cover version so it's hardly worth listening to other than for the added cover version of Scream's "New Song" which is one of the best things about the release to be honest.

In fairness, the samples are legitimately quite funny & I do find myself with a smile on my face a lot of the time however it has to be said that most of the cover versions are nothing more than novelties & offer very little replay value. The clear highlight is the original piece "Surf's Up" which has a truck load of infectious punk rock energy about it & sees me singing along to the gang vocals in no time at all. The production is generally very good which makes the E.P. a lot easier on the ear than it could have been & the band seem to having an absolute ball throughout which certainly helps too. The last couple of cover versions are fairly dire though & this sees the "The Movie" petering out when it could have gone out on a high with the inclusion of the previously mentioned "New Song". Strangely though, I can't seem to draw a terrible score out of this release. It's got just enough quirky fun about it to border on the endearing & to avoid suffering any major humiliations here.

For fans of S.O.D., Carnivore & Scatterbrain.

This one-off album from Sydney thrash metallers Massive Appendage may well be the earliest proper release to come from the Australian extreme metal scene & when I first got into thrash in the late 1980's the band had earnt quite a local reputation, despite the fact that they'd been split up for at least a year by that stage. Nonetheless, I became pretty familiar with my dubbed cassette copy of "The Severed Erection" & had particular attraction to the work of lead guitarist Jed Starr who possessed some pretty significant chops for the time with some blazing guitar solos & three or four very effective acoustic guitar sections.

One look at the cover artwork, track titles & lyrics will leave you with very little doubt that Massive Appendage didn't take themselves too seriously & I'm not usually one for humour in my metal but I was only very young at the time & didn't know anything about sex so it all seemed pretty exciting. The production job is unfortunately awful & it's this element more than any other that held Massive Appendage back from the sort of success that could have been achieved with a capably performed thrash metal record at the absolute peak of the genre. Thankfully there's enough quality in the song-writing to cope with it & I still find myself getting quite a bit of enjoyment out of the album, even if there are a few duds here & there. Front man Big Bird's vocals sit somewhere in between Suicidal Tendencies main man Mike Muir & Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale. He's not amazing from a technical perspective but the hooks are really fun & the energy of the band's delivery keeps me engaged the majority of the time. I can take or leave the silly lyrics these days but it's hard to deny the attraction that a chorus like the one from the band's self-titled song had for a young & impressionable teenage me ("Massive cocks gliding through the atmosphere. Oh my God... They'll shoot a load in your ear.")

Massive Appendage's sound could be described as being similar to the more melodic US thrash metal acts of the time like Testament, Metallica & Overkill with a fair chunk of classic heavy metal influence (Sabbath/Maiden/Priest) & a few punky moments here & there. To their credit though, Massive Appendage really didn't sound a lot like any one band & this gives them an edge over other obscure & mostly forgotten underground acts. It's not just nostalgia that drew me back for a revisit. There's something about these silly songs that I kinda dig & if you can look past the dodgy production then you may just find some enjoyment here too.

P.S. Members of Massive Appendage would go on to form another couple of legendary Sydney metal establishments in the Fester Fanatics & Killing Time. Stories for another time.

I first had my attention drawn to long-time New Jersey death metal stalwarts Incantation way back in 1992 when I was still a teenager & at the height of my obsession with the genre. Their debut album “Onward To Golgotha” made a significant impression on me & received lots of play time over the next year or so although it never quite reached classic status for me personally. It’s dank & deathly atmosphere was the very definition of what death metal aspired to be though & ever since I’ve come to regard Incantation’s discography as some of the purest death metal you’ll find. I mean if you only have a passing interest in death metal then you may find a band like Incantation to be a bit of a challenge as they favour atmosphere & darkness over precise execution & memorable hooks. In fact, that approach was both “Onward To Golgotha”s strength & weakness if you know what I mean. I find that I’m always enjoying myself but the individual songs lacked the variety & definition to allow them to rise to the top tier of the death metal elite. I found just as much appeal in Incantation’s even murkier & sludgier follow-up “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene” & even invested in the alternative mix of the album known as “Upon The Throne Of Apocalypse”, both of which I found to really float my boat without ever threatening to tip me over the edge into genuine classic territory. So by that stage Incantation was still firmly entrenched as a high quality & consistent second tier death metal act; the sort of band I’d always check out but would rarely find myself gushing over for years to come. 1998’s third proper studio album “Diabolical Conquest” would see the band finally starting to meet their enormous potential though. Not by doing anything noticeably different to before (which is interesting in itself given that they only had one band member remaining from their debut by that stage), but through some intelligent fine-tuning & the sharpening of some already fairly deadly instruments.

Upon first listen it’s easy to discard “Diabolical Conquest” as just another Incantation record. I mean it’s nothing you haven’t heard before, right? The intentionally sludgy & mossy production, the gorgeously muddy guitar tone, the monstrous bass tone, the loose-ish performances that ooze of underground credibility, the ultra-deep & repetitive vocals (courtesy of The Chasm bassist Daniel Corchado in his only appearance with Incantation)... This is Incantation doing what they do best & being completely unapologetic for it but repeat listens will see the full weight of this album’s arsenal slowly becoming apparent. The band have taken the opposing extremes of their sound & pushed them further to give themselves a greater dynamic range while also returning with their biggest & best production to date which offers greater clarity without ever losing its filthy grip on the underground. I’d suggest that this is a more brutal record than Incantation’s earlier releases with a little more emphasis being placed on blast beats. There’s no time for guitar solos here. Incantation intend to bludgeon you into submission & I’ll be fucked if they don’t succeed. But then they also accentuate & take full advantage of the slow, dirge-like doom/death sections that highlighted “Mortal Throne Of Nazarene”, leaving the listener to wade through the mire whilst being almost overcome by the sheer dread of what lurks beneath. Personally, I’ve always felt that Incantation were at their best when they dropped the tempo as I feel their sound is better suited to the greater definition the additional space allows for so this element of the record was most welcome.

The tracklisting is extremely consistent with no single track coming close to being subpar or even dropping the quality level below the “high” marker for more than a few moments. “Diabolical Conquest” is very much the embodiment of a band that knows their craft well. If I’m being overly picky I could suggest that (very much like the band’s first couple of albums) there’s not all that much to differentiate five or six of the shorter tracks which tend to take a very similar approach, particularly the more blasting numbers. But if I’m honest, this album falls into unique company in that its acclaim is mainly drawn from its more substantial inclusions & rightfully so too. The clear highlight is the closing sixteen minute epic known as “Unto Infinite Twilight/Majesty Of Infernal Damnation” which sees Incantation fully embracing their doom/death side & producing one of the great works of the subgenre in the process. It possesses a very different feel to the rest of the album & leaves the listener wanting much much more. In fact, it may well be the crowning achievement of Incantation’s career to date &, given that its lengthy run time takes up a third of the album’s total duration, its impact on my overall impression of this release cannot be understated. The other genuine classic amongst the eight tracks is “Desecration (Of The Heavenly Graceful)” which once again sees the band working with more moderate tempos & accentuating their best elements. This is premium, peak-time death metal that will have your purists frothing at the mouth.

“Diabolical Conquest” may not offer a lot in the way of experimentation or originality but it never claimed to. It always wanted to be a death metal record & it subsequently achieves it in emphatic fashion by presenting one of the truest amalgamations of the death metal aesthetic you’ll find. I mean I literally find myself envisaging corpses climbing out of their tombs in the graveyard at midnight when I listen to this record & isn’t that what good old-school death metal is all about? Sure its fanfare is heavily reliant on its highlights but you could just as easily say that it’s the strength of the filler material that enables someone like me to score it so highly. I don’t think it’s worth over-thinking things when it comes to a band like Incantation though. They clearly do what they do for the love of it & there is rarely a fuck given about what’s trending right now or for what anyone else thinks. At my core I’m a death metal obsessive over any other subgenre & this album makes no attempt to hide the fact that it’s a death metal record for lovers of death metal. Is this Incantations’ crowning achievement? Quite possibly. I’ve swapped & changed my opinion on that a few times over the years but I’m gonna go with it for the time being given that I recently revisited “Onward To Golgotha” & couldn’t get above a very solid 4/5 rating. Perhaps it’s only taken me this long to come to my senses due to the fact that, unlike Incantation’s earlier releases, I didn’t get onboard the “Diabolical Conquest” train until a good eleven years after its release due to my wandering musical eye having taken me further afield by that point in time. Regardless, this is peak time, premium level death metal of the highest order, complete with a timeless authenticity & a deathly atmosphere. There will always be an audience for this sort of thing & it isn’t limited to one particular age group. Those with an ear for the underground will forever rejoice in such an uncompromising & punishing display of blasphemy.

For fans of Immolation, Disma & Autopsy.

My experience with long-standing German power metal heavy-weights Gamma Ray has been limited over the years. I make no secret about the fact that I usually struggle with the European brand of power metal & my only previous attempt at initiating a relationship with Gamma Ray (through their most highly celebrated 1995 album “Land Of The Free”) had seen me failing to breach their melodic shell. The decades that have followed have seen me giving several of the other senior power metal players a chance to convert me but success has been rare so my enthusiasm when going into Gamma Ray’s re-recorded compilation double album “Blast From The Past” was very much kept in check by a healthy layer of scepticism.

When I originally selected “Blast From The Past” as the December 2020 feature release for our The Guardians clan I really had no idea of what I was getting myself into. I hadn’t done enough research to understand the sheer girth of this release (which clocks in at a massive 121 minutes in duration) &, for someone that finds power metal to be a significant challenge at the best of times, this would see my newly instated commitment to reviewing all nine of our monthly feature releases standing like an insurmountable wall in front of me with no option available to me other than to start climbing & hope for the best. A brief preliminary Google search would see me coming to the realisation that “Blast From The Past” was essentially a collection of a few tracks from each of Gamma Ray’s six studio albums to the time with the material from the first three records having been re-recorded with guitarist/vocalist Kai Hansen behind the microphone following the departure of former front man Ralf Scheepers in 1994. The later Hansen-fronted material has apparently been remastered.

My initial impressions of “Blast From The Past” were as predictable as they were inevitable with the first three tracks very much confirming that my initial scepticism was justified. All of the characteristics that marred my previous experience with most European power metal are plainly evident during the start of the album with a heavy emphasis being placed on cheesy melody, particularly during the intro track “Welcome” & the extremely poppy “Heaven Can Wait”. But things take a drastic turn for the better from track four when I was pleasantly surprised by a more ambitious & progressive fifteen minute epic that utilizes a more traditional heavy metal sound. This kicked off a string of eight tracks in a row that I find to be very enjoyable indeed, including a couple of genuine classics in “Changes” & “Dream Healer”. This was very surprising on first listen but it quickly became apparent as to why I found this material to be so damn appealing. There’s a greatly reduced reliance on the Helloween/Blind Guardian model of speed metal-infused & overly-melodic power metal in favour of a more palatable heavy metal approach that draws significant influence from classic Judas Priest. In fact, the Priest worship is so obvious that it actually borders on plagiarism at times however the pristine execution & my general feeling of comfort & nostalgia in that sound see me really digging most of this material & I have to wonder whether the albums these tracks are taken from might be something that I should explore further. Kai’s vocal delivery left me in a state of shock too because I found his performances on the first two Helloween releases to be considerably below par but here he delivers a drastically different & remarkably improved display which often leaves me questioning whether I’m really listening to Judas Priest front man Rob Halford in his prime. I honestly can’t believe it’s the same dude to tell you the truth. He must have sold his soul to the devil since his time in Helloween. Unfortunately the back end of the album sees Gamma Ray placing additional pressure on the accelerator again which sees them pulling away from my comfort zone quite often but it’s not all doom & gloom with three or four enjoyable numbers scattered across the B-side in between the less appealing songs like “The Silence” & “Valley of The Kings”.

The production job of Hansen & fellow axe-slinger Dirk Schlachter is outstanding with all of these songs possessing a crisp clarity & each instrument achieving good separation in the mix. In fact, some may argue that the production is TOO clean but I don’t buy into that way of thinking. Good power metal is generally benefitted by a glossy, modern production job & that’s certainly the case here as it helps to highlight some brilliant instrumental performances, particularly that of the twin guitar attack who shred like their lives depend on it. In classic European fashion, most tracks do include those cheesy & simplistic guitar harmonies at some stage but the rest of the lead work is a real strength. As is the metal-as-fuck rhythm guitar tone & the plethora of outstanding classic metal riffs, not to mention the pounding, machine-gun double-kick of drummer Dan Zimmermann. These guys really know their craft & when you combine that prowess with a sublime higher register vocal performance from Hansen you get a release that offers enormous appeal for fans of the subgenre.

Look…. I still can’t say that German power metal is ever going to be my bag with any sort of consistency & there were certainly a fair few negatives for me to overcome here (see the schlocky keyboards on the cheesier tracks) but there’s also more than enough material that falls inside of my personal taste palate to keep me interested. The more Gamma Ray lift the velocity, the more my interest seems to drift as those cheesy harmonies seem to become more pronounced during the speed metal focused stuff but the more moderately paced inclusions are usually very entertaining & I even find it hard not to like a few of the cheesier examples. I guess I’ve always been a sucker for a high quality metal production combined with excellent instrumental performances & a talented vocal delivery & “Blast From The Past” delivers these elements in spades. Its highlights see me overcoming my fears & giving in to the cheese gods for a release that is definitely one of the stronger examples of its type. My mid-range scoring is only reflective of my musical preferences.

For fans of Helloween, Blind Guardian & Judas Priest.

In many ways I was spared the discomfort of having to experience the nu metal revolution in the second half of the 1990’s & early 2000’s. I wasn’t even aware of it during the height of my mid-90’s extreme metal obsession as I was stuck in a bubble of brutality that didn’t allow me to see much of the outside world & by the end of the decade I’d eschewed metal as a whole in favour of exciting new horizons within the realms of electronic music. It wasn’t until I returned to metal in 2009 that I even became aware of Deftones & even then I was hesitant given my limited experience with nu metal on the radio & Deftones’ obviously misguided choice of band names. But given the consistently positive critical opinion on many of Deftones releases I finally decided to give them a crack around 2010 & was very pleasantly surprised by what I found. “Diamond Eyes” wasn’t half bad & it encouraged me to progressively investigate the band’s back catalogue, an exercise that saw me quickly reaching the realization that Deftones links to nu metal were really only realistic when referring to their heavily overrated 1995 debut album “Adrenaline”. The rest of their discography offered me a much more sophisticated take on alternative metal that I found plenty of appeal in, particularly the enigmatic classic that is 2000’s “White Pony” which I regard as a shining beacon of creativity & one of the most essential releases from the subgenre overall. Some of Deftones’ other albums were presented in very similar formats in that you would find them to sound quite familiar upon first listen however the class of the execution & the strength of their hooks would generally shine through & you’d ultimately end up feeling that each album possessed its own unique personality, despite sounding definitively like Deftones. Strangely, I haven’t kept track of the band’s last couple of albums as I seem to have retreated into another bubble over the last decade (let’s just call it Metal Academy, shall we?) so I was pretty keen to see what sort of trouble Chino & the boys had gotten themselves into since we last locked horns.

Upon my first listen to Deftones’ ninth album “Ohms” one thing became immediately evident. The return of producer Terry Date for his first collaboration with the band since 2003’s self-titled album was a master stroke. On a purely sonic level, “Ohms” has a vibrancy & vitality that artists outside of the top tier rarely achieve. Stephen Carpenter’s 7, 8 & 9 string guitars possess a crushing weight that wouldn’t seem out of place on a doom metal or djent release while the strummier open string parts ooze of energy & electricity. Carpenter & front man Chino Moreno have been fighting for the creative upper hand for their entire careers with Carpenter wanting to stay heavier & Moreno wanting to experiment with lighter textures however Carpenter seems to have won the battle on this occasion because “Ohms” is a very heavy record. The atmospheric & textural extravagances of “White Pony” are still clearly visible only they’re used more sparingly & by the end of the record you’re left with no doubts as to the metal credentials of Deftones’ latest outing. The shoegaze & dream pop influences of the past are not as relevant here, mainly because Date has given Moreno’s vocals a dirtier & more abrasive tone across a lot of this material & it suits the modern Deftones sound beautifully. Traditionally I’ve always found Chino’s style to remind me very much of Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan & My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. He’s definitely maintained the similarities to Corgan but I’m not feeling the My Bloody Valentine vibe as strongly these days. Do we really want to imagine this 47 year-old man looking down at his feet with his fringe hanging over his face while he weeps into his microphone in 2020 though with rock music having suffered such injustice over the last couple of decades? On the evidence of my last live Deftones experience I’d suggest that Chino’s voice is probably not up to a consistently cleaner approach these days anyway.

Does “Ohms” fall into the trap of sounding like every other Deftones record? Well, yeah it definitely DOES sound exactly like Deftones doing what they do best & you’re not likely to mistake them for anyone else but if you look at it closely you’ll find that “Ohms” provides a really good summary of their career to date (with the possible exception of their ordinary debut). It takes inspiration from the best elements of the band’s previous works & presents itself as the sum of an impressively long career by showcasing everything that Deftones have learnt in their 25 years of recording music. It does it in fine style too with the band’s inimitable talent for creating genuinely memorable hooks being as evident as it’s ever been. Repeat listens see these tracks developing their own unique personalities very quickly & by the time your third spin is done you can very easily differentiate each of the tracks in your mind as you browse through the tracklisting with many of the catchy pre-choruses & choruses digging their teeth into your brain as if their lives depended on it. The heavier material appeals to me the most with the opening one-two punch of “Genesis” & “Ceremony” leaving me salivating for more & the stunning four-track sequence from “The Spell Of Mathematics” through to “Radiant City” taking full toll on my weakened state. The closing title track was selected as the first single from the album & I have to admit that I find that to be a strange decision because, although I really enjoy it, it’s possibly the least impressive of the ten tracks & it’s structure isn’t exactly reflective of what you can expect from the rest of the album. The more visceral & abrasive “This Link Is Dead” would have been a better option in my opinion as it would have thrown the cat well & truly amongst the pigeons with its incredible live energy.

“Ohms” is a triumphant flexing of Deftones’ creative muscles. It compiles all of the things that have seen me drawn to the band over the years & represents a clear statement that Deftones are far from a dinosauric dad rock band in 2020. It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It simply polishes the wheel, cleans the barings & puts some that black shit on the tyre so that the wheel looks really great & functions beautifully. Not only is “Ohms” relevant in a modern post-COVID world but it possesses a danger that few radio-friendly rock/metal bands have managed to achieve over the last few decades. The balance of hooks & heaviness is spot on & I’ll be very surprised if “Ohms” doesn’t go on to earn the same sort of notoriety as Deftones’ more highly regarded releases over the coming decade.

My first encounter with Californian thrash metallers Testament was way back in 1989 when I picked up their “Practice What You Preach” album shortly after release. I’d only recently been converted to thrash metal the previous year through The Big Four & had heard that Testament sounded a lot like Metallica & had a brilliant lead guitarist so I decided to throw caution to the wind by purchasing the CD blind. That risk certainly paid off as I found that not only were the reports I’d heard accurate but that Testament were a genuine force to be reckoned with in their own right & this may well have been the moment that saw my interest in extreme metal leaving my more traditional metal interests in the dust as I’d finally seen that there was more to thrash than just the Big Four. All of a sudden there was a whole new world available to me that quickly escalated to death & black metal in just a matter of months & saw me leaving Testament behind in favour of more extreme bands like Morbid Angel, Bathory & Pestilence. My fellow Metal Academic administrator & younger brother Ben perhaps took even more strongly to the Bay Area thrash of “Practice What You Preach” & subsequently purchased both of Testament’s earlier albums in 1988’s “The New Order” & their highly celebrated 1987 debut “The Legacy”, both of which I jumped all over.

Testament’s debut (which took the band’s previous moniker for its title) stands out from its older brethren in that it’s a little rawer & thrashier & it seems to be held on somewhat of a pedestal as a result. Is it warranted? Well… yes & no. The production is the first of my concerns as the rhythm guitar sound isn’t what I would hope. It’s weaker & muddier than the premier thrash releases of the time &, while this is nothing terribly unusual for a mid-80’s thrash debut, it does nullify one of the albums major strengths to an extent. That’s right! You’ve guessed it! The rhythm guitar performance is exceptional & features a higher level of complexity & precision that 90% of Testament’s peers. James Hetfield & Dave Mustaine would have been proud of what their disciples had accomplished here (well James would have been anyway) as their influence is obvious in the high speed staccato rhythms & it’s a real shame that the production didn’t emphasize these like it did for a band like Exodus on their respective debut. On top of the underlying aggression though, we find a layer of melody that keeps Testament sounding a touch more accessible than bands like Slayer or Exodus. There’s a clear pedigree in traditional heavy metal in the guitar harmonies with Iron Maiden obviously having made an early impact on the band. Joe Satriani student Alex Skolnick’s guitar solos certainly live up to the hype as they walk the listener through an expansive array of melodic sub-themes that often hint at the neoclassical techniques of legendary Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen. Does it all work? Well… to be honest I think that Skolnick sometimes pushes his focus on melody a little too far & it results in a few cheesier moments that tend to detract from the aggressive thrash atmosphere. I don’t recall Testament’s follow-up album “The New Order” suffering from similar issues so perhaps Alex learnt from his first-up effort.

Front man Chuck Billy has become somewhat of an enigma within thrash circles. He’s a huge unit of a man with a massively powerful voice that commands the listener’s attention but I have to admit that I’ve never rated him quite as highly as some. His performance on “The Legacy” certainly has its moments but I think he was perhaps a touch ambitious in his attempts at creating some catchy singalong choruses as I’m not sure his skill sets were developed enough to pull them off just yet. This is one of the things that prevents me from reaching for the higher scores actually as many of these tracks build up to the chorus hooks beautifully but when you finally get there you sometimes find that they don’t quite deliver as much as you’d hoped. For this reason I find that I really enjoy all of the tracks on the impressively consistent tracklisting but I rarely see my sweet spot being pushed on for long enough to consider reaching for my “classic” stamp. Final track “Apocalyptic City” is the exception to the rule as it manages to steer clear of the previously mentioned attempts at catchy hooks & delivers an emphatic statement to close out the album. In fact, it could be argued that the best two tracks on offer are actually the last two & that leaves me with the feeling that Testament may have been better served by an alternative arrangement of the tracklisting. Regardless, there are no weak tracks here. The melodic Maiden-ish verses of “Burnt Offerings” are probably the low point but even then I find it to be reasonably enjoyable.

“The Legacy” offers a high quality & distinctly Californian brand of thrash metal that competes well with the finer debuts of the genre. In fact, while it may not challenge Exodus’ “Bonded By Blood” for the crown, I’d go so far as to say that I prefer “The Legacy” over some of the more high profile debuts like “Kill ‘Em All” & “Killing Is My Business… & Business Is Good!”. The professionalism & maturity of this record is almost unheard of in thrash circles & it was very clear that Testament were on a path to the top of their chosen craft. 1988’s “The New Order” has always been my preferred Testament record but “The Legacy” gives it a good run for its money & should be respected as a statement of intent from a talented group of musicians who were really going places.

I came into "Alien" fresh as the only Strapping Young Lad release I'd experienced previously was "City" (which I really enjoyed) but over the last couple of days I've found that I marginally prefer "Alien" & was blown away by just how heavy this record is. It takes no prisoners whatsoever & very few fucks are given along the way. I can understand how it might seem like one huge barrage of aggressive to some listeners but I feel that I'm well equipped to handle that sort of thing due to my extreme metal background. I definitely noticed a Napalm Death influence to many of the more intense riffs which isn't surprising given that Devin's been a long-time fan of the band going way back to his contribution to Steve Vai's "Sex & Religion" album in 1993. The timing makes sense because I was continually reminded of 1992's "Utopia Banished" album.

Devin puts sssoooo much into his vocal performance here. I really enjoy the crazed lunatic vibe on some of this material (see "Shitstorm" for example) & feel it's when he's at his best. His more melodic moments are also high quality though with the chorus of "Love?" actually reminding me a lot of Deftones. Gene Hoglan is an absolute enigma & proves that his feet should be insured for a very hefty sum as he's more machine than human. What a performance! And the production job couldn't have been better suited to the product to be honest. Every track sounds enormously epic here with the listener being virtually assaulted with sound which I would imagine was exactly the outcome that Devin was hoping for. The subtle use of keyboards at key moments is used to great effect & fills out the sound beautifully.

The lone ballad "Two Weeks" is clearly the least effective song on the tracklisting even though I still have time for it's sweeter take on an 80's Pink Floyd vibe as the listener is definitely in need of a short break by that stage. Closing twelve minute industrial noise piece "Info Dump" was certainly a challenge at first though with my initial thoughts being "Oh no, he's decided to give us the impression that the album is longer than it actually is by filling in time with pointless noise" but I'm very pleased to say that it develops over time & ends up leaving the listener with a unique & disturbing atmosphere that I really enjoy. But it's the heavier tracks that really float my boat, particularly when they're matched with some of Devin's more intense screams. Brief opener "Imperial" is nothing short of devastating with the gradual buildup & crescendo of "Thalamus" being a close second. The triple play of "Shitstorm" through to "Shine" is also spectacular!

Despite the fact that most of the highlights reside on the A side for me, I find "Alien" to be a very consistent release overall.  In truth, some of Devin's more progressive & melodic moments take me a touch outside of my comfort zone & this (along with the first five minutes of "Info Dump") prevent me from going with a slightly higher rating but the quality here is undeniable. It's an outstanding effort from a highly capable & significantly battle-hardened group of musicians. Whoever selected this album for feature release inclusion really knows his shit & should be heaped with praise for eternity.

For fans of Fear Factory, Ministry & Nailbomb.

The 1987 sophomore album from New Jersey thrash metal establishment Overkill represents my entry point for the band way back around 1989 when I was in my early teenage years & completely obsessed with extreme metal (kinda like now really). I have to admit that, whilst I've always found it to be relatively enjoyable, it's never really convinced me that the band were a tier one act & my feelings haven't changed in that respect. "Taking Over" certainly featured some improvements on their 1985 debut album "Feel The Fire" with more appealing production, performances & song-writing but some of the riffs & arrangements still seem so basic & generic that it sounded a little dated even back then in my opinion. It's not a total thrash-fest either as almost half of the album falls into speed metal or traditional heavy metal territory.

I think the reason that "Taking Over" has remained so popular over the years is due to the tight execution & its uncluttered accessibility. It's like the band understood their limitations a bit better than they did previously & worked within them to create an appealing & marketable product. The other reason is likely the melodic vocal approach of front man Bobby Blitz who hadn't opted for the grindier approach he'd take on later material just yet & contributes some much needed pizzazz to some otherwise fairly uneventful pieces of music. There's definitely a little bit of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson about his performance here & if you listen closely you can hear that he was giving everything he had as far as charisma & effort go. It's certainly paid off as there's only really "Fatal If Swallowed" that fails to leave the desired impact as far as hooks go. In saying that, Bobby's performance still wasn't enough to make any of this material a genuine thrash classic in my opinion so I don't think I can justify the high regard that "Taking Over" is generally held in amongst thrash purists even though it was the band's best release to the time.

I hadn't revisited 2007's "V - Halmstad (Niklas Angående Niklas)" album from Swedish depressive black metal outfit Shining for more than a decade but once I returned to it last week I quickly remembered why I initially found it to be such an interesting listen. It really asks questions of your average DSBM fan as it goes against the grain in many ways. Firstly, the production is crystal clear which is directly opposed to the lo-fi approach that most of Shining's peers take when attempting to create atmosphere & I think it works beautifully here. Perhaps it's due to the fact that it highlights the exceptional level of musicianship & a much more diverse & progressive musical palate than you'd generally expect from a black metal outfit. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's debatable as to whether "V - Halmstad" is even black metal in the traditional sense of the term. Despite the fact that Shining utilize traditional black metal tools fairly consistently throughout the album, the production, musicianship, experimentation in style & unusual vocal techniques never allow them to sound like a black metal band in the purest sense. (I feel similarly about Primordial's classic releases actually.) Post-black metal is perhaps a more accurate tag for "V - Halmstad" than anything else but it still doesn't fit all that comfortably.

Regardless of what most reviews say, I actually don't find "V - Halmstad" to sound all that depressive in a musical sense either. I think people are mainly led down that path by the samples, cover art & lyrics (which are in Swedish) as well as the insane & overthetop vocal delivery & stage antics of Kvarforth but it's also possible that I simply can't relate to these sort of feelings & therefore aren't able to connect with the music in the same way. Kvarforth's vocals are a bit of a struggle for me at times to be honest. At his best his blood-curdling howls & croaks remind me of Mayhem/Aborym/Tormentor/Sunn O))) front man Attila Csihar but at his worst he sounds pretty similar to Zed from the Police Academy movies. Some of the suicidal & depressive movie samples are very effective but I do think they go too far with pushing these themes at times as there are one or two sections that are simply too miserable to make for enjoyable listening, instead making the listener feel significantly uneasy. The first two tracks are spectacular & I always feel like I'm heading towards a very high scoring result early on but, even though there are no weak tracks on offer, the middle of the album sees a decline in overall impact before taking an upwards turn & finishing with a couple of very solid & effective pieces. 

Overall, this is a high quality & ambitious piece of work that should appeal to fans of Silencer, Forgotten Tomb & Bethlehem.

Occasionally during my journey through a lifetime of metal exploration I’ll come across a release that puts me well & truly outside of my comfort zone but is simply done so well that I can’t help but let my defences down & the 2004 debut album from German progressive metal outfit Disillusion is one such record. You’ll rarely find such an ambitious & fully realised debut effort & could be forgiven for mistaking it for the culmination of a decade or more of studio experience so I wasn’t surprised to discover that Disillusion had been around in one form or another for a full decade by this stage in their evolution.

I first encountered “Back To Times Of Splendor” in 2009 & recall being seriously impressed however I haven’t felt the need to return to it until now & are very pleased to find that my feelings haven’t changed over the years. It’s charms are built on a foundation of melodic death metal & you’ll easily be able to pick up the influence of bands like At The Gates however the lengthy track durations & more expansive arrangements see the album residing firmly in the progressive metal camp with Opeth being the main point of reference. The consistent use of synthesizers really fills out Disillusion’s sound & gives it a more epic feel although I do think the album could have done with a touch more dynamic range as a result. The execution & performances are quite brilliant while the production is more than suitable for a progressive metal release with its clarity & power providing the material with the full scope to dig its teeth in. This isn’t the most technical of progressive metal releases but there’s an intelligence & professionalism to the song structures that again hints at a seasoned veteran of the scene.

The vocal delivery of front man Vurtox isn’t the most stunningly charismatic you’ll hear with his hooks being more subtle & veering away from your typically light-weight melodeath cheese towards a warmer & more rewarding outcome that may not knock you for six but is memorable enough to prick your ears up. His style seems to be a hybrid of the quirky ADD-fueled rants of System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian & the clean gothic musings of My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe with the odd death metal outburst giving the album the required level of underground appeal. The vocals aren’t the main focal point of Disillusion’s sound though in my opinion. Their appeal seems to be centred more around building a big sonic soundscape full of classy arrangements & pristine execution & if that was their ambition then they’ve succeeded in no uncertain terms.

“Back To Times Of Splendor” is an imposing way to start a career & it’s easy to see why it had such an impact on the unsuspecting underground. It’s very well thought out & full of substance with an attention to detail that never allows it to overstep the mark in regards to melodic extravagance & this is one of the main reasons that it appeals to me when so many melodeath-based releases do not. I’m surprised that we haven’t seen Disillusion go on to bigger & better things in the subsequent years however if this release ends up being the band’s crowning glory then they’ve achieved heights that most budding young prog-heads will never be in a position to boast about.

For fans of Opeth, At The Gates & In Mourning.

It really is pretty amazing that Brazilian thrash metal masters Sepultura didn't kick-off their period of global domination until 1989's "Beneath The Remains" because their earlier releases were exceptionally impressive in the context of what was going on around them. I've always been a big fan of their first two death/thrash outings & think they're heavily underrated however things escalated dramatically for the band following the recruitment of lead guitarist Andreas Kisser who gave them an additional level of sophistication & professionalism. Sepultura seemed to discover melody all of a sudden with Kisser's trademark solos adding a whole new element to the band's repertoire. This was accentuated by a significantly cleaner production job which would better harness the power of the band member's rapidly improving technical skills. Max's vocals are still a bit gruffer & more inaccessible than they would become but I find them to be very enjoyable as they ooze of that underground quality that makes Brazilian extreme metal so appealing. Igor's drumming has improved dramatically although his double kick work was still a little rough around the edges.

You can easily hear the sound that made Sepultura so huge just a couple of years later here as it's already well & truly in effect. The exciting & incisive guitar tone which is perfectly suited to thrash metal, the constant changes in riff & beat, the attention to detail in the transitions, the fast & exciting tempos, the precision execution & performances.... I think the only thing missing is the consistency within each track. Every song is at a very high quality when taken holistically & all include amazing parts but almost all of them also sport a couple of less ambitious & more generic thrash riffs. They're beautifully executed of course but these minor blemishes do stop me from reaching for the higher scores. These moments generally occur during the chuggier mid-range sections & I think Sepultura would have been better served by leaving their pedal to the metal for the most part. Igor would learn how to better accentuate these sections over the next year or so too. 

As with all of Sepultura's early works, you'll probably pick up a fair few sections that sound remarkably like parts of "Beneath The Remains" or "Arise". The band had a tendency to rework their older material in the hope that no one would notice. I do but I don't hold it against them because I don't think it detracts from the experience at all. Overall, "Schizophrenia" is a high quality release from a band that was clearly going places. It put the competition on clear notice that they'd better look over their shoulders because the Brazilians were coming for them. 

For fans of Slayer, Kreator & Sodom.

Let's just get this out of the way early & say don't go into "Lesions Of A Different Kind" expecting something fresh or new because you'll be sorely disappointed. This is pure old school death metal worship with Incantation & Immolation being the two names that immediately spring to mind. "Lesions Of A Different Kind" is a dark, dank, swampy, swarming mass of disgust with those definitively deep vocals that the style has built its reputation on & a bassy guitar sound that's tuned down so far you can feel the strings vibrating in your gut. In fact, you won't be able to distinguish the vocal delivery from that of the band's I've just mentioned & the guitar tone has got a similar feel to Morbid Angel's 7-string efforts on "Covenant" & "Domination" only it's less precise in its execution. I also pick up a bit of 1989-91 Carcass influence at various times & the drumming is certainly influenced by Cannibal Corpse's Paul Mazurkiewicz.

In terms of quality, this is mostly all good shit for an old school death metal fan like myself. I think the opening track "Suitably Hacked to Gore" was a poor choice to kick off proceedings though as it's the only track that I don't have time for. I'd be lying if I said the "heard-it-all-before" nature of this album doesn''t limit its scoring potential but for the most part it's done almost as well as the records that influenced it so don't let that put you off. I think Undeath are at their best when they're at the lower end of the tempo range (particularly when utilizing double-time ride-cymbal work) & when they start to think up-tempo their appeal wanes just a touch. Overall "Lesions Of A Different Kind" is a very solid if unashamedly meat-&-potatoes death metal release that should appeal to most fans of the genre. 

OK so I’m gonna have to thank saxy profusely for leading me down this path because “Eons” has quite simply left me with my jaw lying on the ground over the last few days & has single-handedly proven the validity of the push to include some more modern feature releases. It’s an indescribably beautiful & gloriously intimidating 128-minute triple album that truly defies categorization. The most common labels attributed to it seem to be avant-garde jazz & drone metal but neither is a terribly good fit in my opinion. It’s easy enough to see why people want to go down those paths but this is a long way from a jazz release even though it consistently draws upon shared tools. It’s also not a metal release when taken holistically but a good portion of the material seems to borrow from that niche subgenre’s intimidating grandeur & there are certainly a few tracks that are a good fit for that tag. I’d throw in ritual ambient & traditional drone as equally strong components of Neptunian Maximalism's sound though, particularly due to the consistent pulse that binds their noise-laden soundscapes & the extensive layering of Eastern-influenced sounds on offer, both of which see me often being reminded of Dead Can Dance although the link is more in the aesthetic than the overall sound. There are hints at krautrock in the celebration of experimentation here too. The more drone metal inspired works on the third record are where things come together in their purest & most gripping realization & I’d suggest that the four tracks it contains are very close to perfect. The more jazz inspired pieces don’t have quite the same effect but are just as intriguing from an artistic point of view.

"Eons" is a dark, brooding, cerebral & spiritually enlightening experience that seems to have been custom-made for someone like me that likes to be challenged both artistically & emotionally by my music. It's interesting that the cover art is a pretty good graphical indication of what you can expect to find contained within actually. You’ll rarely find an album that more successfully takes the listener outside of their comfort zone & into an entirely new world. Just don’t expect that world to be as immediately welcoming as you might hope because the sheer breadth of this musical undertaking is not for the faint of heart. Neptunian Maximalism have conjured up a release that sounds very much like the soundtrack to a ritualistic human sacrifice. It will undoubtedly have you questioning whether you want to watch such an atrocity however you’ll struggle to look away as the process seems to hint at a spiritual transcendence that only exists in our dreams & fantasies. 

I was only a very young chap when I first encountered seminal Brazilian black metal outfit Sarcófago back in the early 1990's. I'd begun tape trading with a South American kid who possessed a comprehensive list of his local product & I subsequently received a long procession of underground stuff from him in the mail over short period. Amongst that lot was a whole bunch of Sarcófago material & I can distinctly remember having my mind blown by just how raw metal music could get. It was very much a novelty for me at the time & it's understandable as to why I felt that way when I return to their debut full-length "I.N.R.I." in more modern times. Sarcófago took influence from several of the most extreme forms of music of the time & ramped them all up to eleven, all while still learning to play their instruments. But any experienced fan of South American extreme metal will tell you that these technical inadequacies & the general naivety of the song-writing are a big part of the attraction with this style of music & that's never been more evident than it is with "I.N.R.I.". It's full of out-of-time blast beats, silly monster noises & incompetent guitar solos but I'll be fucked if these "qualities" do anything to tarnish the album's appeal. It's simply a really fun listen & shouldn't be taken as seriously as many kvlt black metallers seem to.

Thankfully the production is clear enough so that you can easily make out all of the instruments. The snare drum is ridiculously loud but that has always been a common trait of South American releases. The influence of hardcore punk on Sarcófago's sound is obvious & it gives them a formidable energy that borders on being infectious. I do really enjoy the aggressive vocals which give the album a darker feel & helps it to overcome the fact that the instrumentalists are struggling to hold everything together beneath them. You'll often see people tossing around the thrash metal tag with "I.N.R.I." but there's very little legitimate thrash on offer if you look closely. This is pure black metal bordering on the more modern war metal movement that Sarcófago were such an key influence on. Early Sodom & Hellhammer are the most obvious influences in my opinion but the early Brazilian releases from Sepultura & Vulcano are also good points of reference, not to forget the hardcore & early grindcore elements. 

This all amounts to a consistently enjoyable listen that never borders on being life-changing but is ultimately fit for purpose when searching for the ultra-kvlt & super-raw release that defines what it meant to be underground in the mid-to-late 1980's. I undoubtedly have a bit of an emotional attachment to Sarcófago given my history with them at a very impressionable time in my life but if I try my best to put those feelings aside I still can't seem to shift the adrenaline rush they give me. There's a purity to the primitive packaging & delivery that seems to transcend the technical deficiencies & this was the flame that the early black metal scene found so attractive. If you're into modern black metal then you owe it to yourself to at least have an understanding of what "I.N.R.I." was about & the impression it left of the metal underground. I can't say it'll ever sit amongst my all-time favourites but I never regret my occasional revisit.

The 1987 debut album from Los Angeles five-piece Holy Terror (entitled "Terror & Submission") offers a raw brand of distinctly 1980's metal that skates along the edges of several different subgenres & kinda summarizes the sound of that decade in many ways. To my ears the major influence here is Iron Maiden & much of this material sounds like Holy Terror have simply upped the tempo on the NWOBHM legend's trademark melodic gallop but I also pick up a bit of Manilla Road & Venom in the mix too. It's interesting that I haven't mentioned any thrash bands there & that's significant because, although "Terror & Submission" is generally regarded as a thrash release, I actually don't think that's an entirely accurate description because more than half of the tracklisting sits more comfortably under the speed metal banner in my opinion with another one & a half tracks taking a more traditional heavy metal direction. Even some of the thrashier tracks include elements of classic metal like melodic guitar harmonies that you wouldn't normally expect from a thrash band. There are even a couple of choruses that remind me very much of power metal which was something I wasn't expecting. Keith Deen's vocals kinda remind me of the gruffer moments of Manilla Road's Mark Shelton crossed with Megadeth's Dave Mustaine.  

The production is pretty raw & dirty which provides further weight for my case for the speed metal tag while about a third of the material sounds a bit half-baked to me. I get the distinct feeling that Holy Terror weren't quite the finished product at this stage but when they get things right they can be an exciting prospect, particularly during the extended dual guitar solo sections which are a real highlight. This isn't a bad debut by any means but I don't think it stands out from the pack as much as the popular consensus would seem to indicate. Perhaps I'm simply not as much of a speed metal fan as I am a thrash one & my opinions on the individual tracks would seem to indicate that this is true with the thrashier tracks like "Tomorrow's End" & the title track being the highlights for me. Speed metal aficionados should definitely give "Terror & Submission" a few spins though.

For fans of Agent Steel, Hallows Eve & early Living Death.

The second & final album from this New York crossover thrash outfit is generally regarded as one of the pinnacles of the subgenre but I have to admit that I've always struggled to find much appeal in Carnivore's music. It's certainly true that I've never been one to be particularly interested in the concept of humour being integrated into my metal (particularly when it borders of being racist at times for pure shock value) but (with the obvious exception of an intro track that's essentially the sound of someone vomiting) that's not the reason I don't dig a record like "Retaliation". It's more around the constant changing of styles (even throughout the individual tracks) which sees the album lacking in cohesion. I'm also not such a big fan of future Type O Negative front man Peter Steel's angry yet spasmatic vocal delivery here. He sounds like he's trying too hard to sound unhinged & psychotic to me.

Musically, it's quite hard to pin down Carnivore's sound. For example, I never regarded their self-titled debut as a crossover release as it actually included very little that I'd actually class as crossover. "Retaliation", on the other hand, has much stronger credentials as it's much faster & thrashier with a significantly stronger hardcore component so I'm comfortable that it's the senior subgenre here with New York hardcore, traditional heavy metal & stoner metal (think Black Sabbath's "Vol 4") all playing a strong role at various points. The instrumental track "Five Billion Dead" even seems to draw on Rush! There are some decent tracks included & you can hear the obvious influence that the album had on a diverse array of bands from Crowbar to Morbid Angel but it's the lack of consistency that gets to me in the end & this is the deciding factor in me never really feeling the urge to pull out a Carnivore record when I feel like thrashing around my car or loungeroom. I agree that "Retaliation" is Carnivore's best work but unfortunately it's still not really for me.

For fans of S.O.D., Cro-Mags & D.R.I.

Every now & then we’ll see a metal band exploding onto the global market in a major way &, in the process of doing so,  managing to highlight the strength of their local scene to the extent that several of the associated bands & labels see themselves being taken along for the rid. We saw it with Darkthrone & the Norwegian black metal scene. We saw it with Entombed & the Swedish death metal scene. And we saw it with Sepultura & South American thrash metal. I haven’t really read anyone else making similar claims but I’m pretty sure that virtually no one had ever heard of Brazil’s Ratos de Porão before Sepultura’s “Beneath The Remains” blew up big time, but I distinctly remember their name popping up all over the place very quickly after the Sep’s were on their way to global domination & it was more than just a quick cash-grab.  

The story of Ratos de Porão (Portuguese for “basement rats”) actually began in Sao Paulo all the way back to 1981 when they began life as a purely hardcore/crust punk act in the tradition of G.B.H. & Discharge. They were quite controversial in the early days of their existence as they were not only the most extreme punk band in Brazil but also one of the first local artists to openly criticize Brazilian society which was a very bold move in what was (& still is) a very dangerous political environment. Ratos de Porão’s 1984 debut album “Crucificados pelo sistema” would represent the very first Brazilian hardcore punk album & would also make a significant impact on the global hardcore scene. At around this time the increasingly intimidating threat of ongoing gang violence would see much of the Sao Paulo hardcore scene disintegrating & Ratos de Porão were not immune to the decay. They would disband for a short time before band leader & drummer Jão decided to put together a new version of the band which would see him dropping the drum sticks & picking up a guitar. Jão had become enamored with the thriving thrash metal sound that was taking the world by storm & he wanted to see his new lineup taking on a fresh new sound. 1986’s album would be the first Ratos de Porão release to offer hints at a hybrid punk/metal sound but it was still predominantly a hardcore release. Unfortunately, many of the local punks would not be terribly open to the dilution of the band’s original hardcore sound with many abandoning them & as a result “Descanse em paz” would not be as successful as “Crucificados pelo sistema”.  

After the release of their sophomore album, Ratos de Porão’s increasing interest in metal would see them spending a lot more time socializing with local thrash metal bands like Sepultura & Korzus & this would eventually lead to them becoming associated with legendary Sao Paulo extreme metal label Cogumelo Records. It was still early days for Cogumelo but they were quickly building a rabid underground fanbase following the release of the Sepultura/Overdose split, Sepultura’s “Morbid Visions” album & the “Warfare Noise” compilation with several other promising acts like Mutilator, Chakal, Sarcófago & Holocausto already on their books as well. With a renewed focus, Jão & the boys would head back into the studio to record their third album, only this time with a significantly renovated sound. It seemed that Ratos de Porão were not the only punks that had developed a strong metal fetish as they’d been hearing other hardcore acts like DRI, Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, English Dogs & Suicidal Tendencies starting to move in somewhat of a hybrid direction & they wanted in on the act. The result would be 1987’s “Cada dia mais sujo e agressivo” album (translated as “every day more dirty & aggressive”) which would be released through Cogumelo Records. It would become the earliest Brazilian crossover thrash release of any note & would also see the band taking the throne as the undisputed kings of Brazilian crossover thrash; a title they've maintained pretty comfortably to the current day. 

“Cada dia mais sujo e agressivo” would be recorded at J.G. Studios in Belo Horizonte in 1987 with Marcos Gaugin behind the desk. Marcos seems to have had a close affiliation with Cogumelo & Brazilian metal in general as he would record a number of important metal releases during this period including Chakal’s “Abominable anno domini”, Sarcofago’s “I.N.R.I.” & Sepultura’s “Schizophrenia” albums. The result that Marcos was able to draw from the sessions with Ratos de Porão though could be described as serviceable without being outstanding. It’s a raw & dirty sounding record which is certainly appropriate for a hardcore-driven band but the rhythm guitars do sound a little muffled & lacking in brightness & tend to blend in with the bass guitar which gives the record a muddy feel that’s not necessarily a major problem once you get used to it. The guitars are presented right up front in the mix which is great for this style of metal with the drums sitting mainly towards the back with only the snare drum cutting through. The rest of the kit sounds fairly thin & clicky behind the wall of guitars but Jão’s vocals receive good separation which allows him to tower over the instrumentalists in an imposing show of strength. The guitar solos tend to be a wall of high-end which masks their lack of technical proficiency a little bit. Overall, I don’t think I can complain too much given the band’s style & the tools at their disposal. 

The cover art for “Cada dia mais sujo e agressivo” would seem to be a visual representation of the band’s moniker as it shows a poorly drawn image of a huge rat standing on its hind legs & carrying a large wrench in its left hand. He has a very determined look on his face too & I can imagine that the band would have seen themselves in this image given their renewed focus on becoming the originators of the Brazilian crossover thrash subgenre. It’s unfortunate that the artwork looks so immature & childish though because it definitely cheapens the product & the initial impressions that prospective fans might have had when first encountering it. This was nothing new for Brazilian thrash though it has to be said & certainly not for Cogumelo who would release a procession of records with similarly poor cover art. A lot of those releases offered a much poorer level of musicianship than we would get with Ratos de Porão though & I think that this actually gave the cheap artwork more of an endearing attraction than we get with “Cada dia mais sujo e agressivo” where it seems inappropriate for the task at hand. 

Musically,  “Cada dia mais sujo e agressivo” is pretty much the definitive hardcore/metal hybrid. There’s only really one or two tracks that favour the hardcore element a little more prominently than the metal one but in general we get roughly a 50/50 prospect that fits the genre tag beautifully. Jão’s vocal approach comes very much from the hardcore side of the equation & he represents one of the best components of the Ratos de Porão sound here. There’s a bus-load of aggression in his delivery & the limitations of the Portuguese lyrical approach become pretty much irrelevant given the power & attitude he manages to harness. The guitars are where most of the thrash component stems from though & Ratos de Porão are definitely at their best when they’re placing their feet firmly down on the pedal as the faster material is certainly their strongest. In saying that though, there really isn’t a lot of slow or mid-paced material here & there is a case for claiming a lack of variety although the short duration of the album probably negates it a little. The more mid-paced thrash riffs that we do get tend to be fairly generic & I get the feeling that Jão was still more comfortable in the realm of your more up-tempo hardcore riff assault. There are a few solos included although they’re generally pretty incompetently performed & don’t add a lot to the music. But the real weak point of the album is found in Spaghetti’s d-beat influenced drumming (yes that’s his name apparently, possibly due to his sloppiness? – God I’m funny sometimes). I’m never able to overcome the feeling that he’s struggling to maintain the intensity & his timing is always just that tiny bit out which frustrates me a little given the obvious potential of this band. I can easily imagine just how much more appealing “Cada dia mais sujo e agressivo” might be with Charlie Benante behind the kit for example. Oh well.. it wasn’t to be I guess. Jão’s timing isn’t wonderful either to be honest but this is not as significant a factor in holding the band together. 

The quality of the song-writing is generally pretty good with only a couple of weaker tracks popping up in quick succession on the B-side (see “Peste sexual” & “Sentir ódio e nada mais”) before the band pick things up at the end with closing track “V.C.D.M.S.A.” being the album’s most extreme. The A-side is quite strong though & kicks off with the album highlight in the very thrashy “Tatoo Maniax”. As you can see, I definitely enjoy the more intense material & (as is generally the case for me) the punkier tracks offer a little less appeal. There’s a lot of potential in some of the better songs but they don’t ever quite manage to produce the hooks required to see me elevating them up into classic status so the appeal of the album tends to be more to do with the raw hardcore aggression & general commitment to speed. That’s the difference between your tier ones & your runners up though, isn’t it really? The ability to not only produce vicious & nasty thrash metal but to still maintain an elite level of accessibility through high quality song-writing & I feel that this was one of the reasons that (with the obvious exception of Sepultura who were masters of this technique) the South Americans never quite managed to step up to similar levels of acclaim as the Germans. 

“Cada dia mais sujo e agressivo” is a pretty strong example of crossover thrash that will offer appeal to any fan of the subgenre but is unlikely to convert too many newcomers. It’s importance to the Brazilian scene is substantial though as it opened both the punk & metal audiences up to a new direction & represents one of the elite local examples of the style still to this day. It’s a record that I generally enjoy but rarely love & it’s a shame that we didn’t get the opportunity to hear it with a high-quality production & with a more skilled time-keeper. In saying that though, I’ve recently read that there’s a re-release that features a better sound quality & English lyrics so it’s possible that at least one of those issues I've mentioned may already have been rectified over the years. I may have to investigate that some time soon.   

For fans of: DRI, SOD, Suicidal Tendencies

By 1987, the German metal scene had already built itself a very strong reputation for raw & exciting thrash that favoured aggression & violence over technique & musical theory. Many fans would have you believe that the Americans had single-handedly created the genre through hard-hitting trailblazers like Metallica & Slayer but if you do your research you’ll find that the Germans were right there alongside them. In fact, the earliest Teutonic demos from the likes of Sodom & Holy Moses were already aligning themselves with our mighty Lord Satan as far back as 1982 which puts them in direct competition with Metallica’s “No Life ‘til Leather” demo as far as historical timelines go. But unlike the Americans who would seize the opportunity with both hands, the Germans would have to wait a couple more years to see their first commercially released thrash records starting to hit the shelves. It would initially be the Big Three of Teutonic Thrash that would take up the charge with Destruction, Sodom & Kreator all making significant claims to the German thrash throne during the 1984/85 period. The next couple of years would see Kreator & Sodom edging ahead with the first legitimately classic German thrash releases & this would prove to be somewhat of a global announcement to the world with a flood of new players like Exumer, Angel Dust, Assassin, Deathrow, Tankard, Necronomicon, Violent Force, Accuser, Paradox, Holy Moses, Living Death, Mekong Delta & Vendetta all exploding onto the market at around the same time to create a healthy, thriving & self-perpetuating scene. It was amongst this hive of creative activity that Essen five-piece Darkness were learning the ropes & firming up their plans for world domination. 

Darkness were actually one of the earlier German thrash bands having formed back in 1985 while the Teutonic scene was still relatively young. They’d go through various incarnations during their early years with their lineup being an ever-changing beast that morphed between three, four & five piece arrangements on a number of occasions. The young band would record five demo tapes in total over the first two years of their existence before finally seeing their lineup solidifying & gaining the interest of Peter Garattoni & Gunter Marek who decided that the product Darkness were pushing was worthy of investment. Peter & Gunter would form a label known as Tales Of Thrash Records which would provide the band with an avenue for releasing their debut album “Death Squad” in 1987. 

I haven’t been able to find any information on who may have produced the “Death Squad” album so it was presumably a self-produced effort which would make sense given the low budget that was afforded to most young thrash bands of the time. But if that’s the case then the band have done a stellar job because “Death Squad” offers exactly what you’d want from a mid-80’s Teutonic thrash release. It’s raw, dirty & metal as fuck but also possesses an uncommon clarity that allows all of the individual instruments to be clearly identified & enjoyed in their own right. The rhythm guitar sound is dripping with molten metal & is a clear selling point for the album. It reminds me very much of the searing tone that Kreator would achieve on their early classics only it’s a touch dirtier & the guitar solos are just as blazing which is a major plus in my book. The unfortunately named Raper receives a bouncy, clean & powerful bass tone which accentuates the driving energy in Darkness’ music while long-time drummer Lacky is afforded lots of bass & depth in his kick drum & toms along with that signature German snare drum sound that cuts through the mix in a constant & merciless attack on your cranium. The band must have been very happy with the result because it represents Darkness’ sound in a very positive light by highlighting their obvious strengths. 

“Death Squad” would come with some reasonably attractive artwork all thing considered. It was based around a very simple concept with five long-haired & leather-clad members of the undead (the five band members presumably) preparing themselves to take on the town under a full moon. One of the crew is carrying what looks to be a machine gun &, given the title of the album, I’d hazard to guess that Essen might be in for an eventful evening. It’s interesting to note that the album title isn’t displayed on the front cover so for all intents & purposes it looks like a self-titled release. Also, when you examine the band’s logo closely you can see clear elements that have been borrowed from Kreator, particularly in the shaping of the letters. I’ll give you the tip though, this won’t be the only time we’ll be referencing Kreator in the next few minutes either. Overall though, I think this is a pretty good album cover for a young thrash band. It’s easy on the eye, suits the band’s image & is a reasonable representation of what you can expect to hear inside. 

Upon dropping the needle onto the platter for the first time, the listener will find themselves confronted with quite a pretty two-minute acoustic guitar introduction piece known as “Invasion Sector 12”. I’d actually go so far as to say that it’s TOO pretty to introduce a violent thrash record like this one but that wasn’t all that uncommon for the time (see Kreator’s “Choir Of The Damned” or Metallica’s “Fight Fire With Fire” for example) & I nonetheless find it to be a reasonably enjoyable experience. But the action doesn’t really start until the first proper song kicks in with the face-melting thrash-fest known as “Critical Threshold” laying all of Darkness’ cards on the table immediately & ensuring that an appropriate level of uncontrolled chaos ensues. This is a Teutonic thrash record in the purest sense of the term & there has been absolutely no attempt to hide the band’s influences or renovate the house that has been built by the three heavy-weights of German thrash. In fact, on first impression I found it hard to think of “Death Squad” as anything other than a Kreator clone given just how familiar it sounds. Most of Darkness’ most ripping riffs are variations on Kreator’s 1985-87 material & the guitar solos could almost have been lifted straight off those records too. Not to mention the raspy Germanic-accented vocals of front man Olli which sound EXACTLY like Mille Petrozza with the occasional moment also recalling the efforts of Kreator drummer Ventor to top things off. Don’t get me wrong though. I’m a fucking Kreator tragic from way back so I don’t say any of that in a derogatory way. A band that sounds exactly like classic Kreator is a very attractive prospect for me personally. 

Subsequent listens would show that there are actually a few additional elements at play on top of the obvious Kreator worship but none that are terribly surprising. The most pronounced one is the influence of Destruction in the use of lead runs to add complexity to some of the riffs but you can also hear a bit of early Sodom in some of the more basic melodic runs. Plus, some of the slower tracks include lead guitar melodies that remind me a lot of your classic NWOBHM brand of traditional heavy metal (Iron Maiden in particular) & I have to say that I could definitely do without those. The beginning of the instrumental track “Tarsman Of Ghor” (named after John Norman’s “Tarnsman Of Gor” fantasy novel) is a prime example with the use of neoclassical melodies sounding both distracting & out of place. I honestly think that Darkness would have been better served by giving them a miss altogether as they dilute the nasty atmosphere significantly. 

Despite being a little raw, the performances are all very good for a Teutonic debut & you can tell that the band already had a little bit of recording experience under their belts by this stage. You won’t find any of the obvious timing issues you’d generally expect from the earlier German thrash releases other than the odd moment when the kick drum drifts a bit but in fairness Lacky’s skill sets were already superior to many of his peers. I particularly enjoy the off-the-hook approach to the solos which sees the twin guitar attack of Arnd & Pierre going absolutely mental with little concern afforded to irrelevant topics like key or theory & I find this component to represent the highlight of the album. There’s a lot of passion in the DIY feel of the faster material & many of the riff structures indicate that German speed metal may have played a fairly significant role in the band’s musical development.  

There are a couple of slower tracks included however I don’t think they’re as effective as the more flat-out material like “Critical Threshold”, “Death Squad”, “Iron Force” & “Phantasmagoria”. The more restrained tempos tend to highlight the band’s limitations more obviously as the lack of creativity becomes more evident & there’s simply more room for error. Unfortunately, the album also suffers from a significant quality hole in the middle of the tracklisting with “Staatsfeind”, “Tarsman Of Ghor” & “Faded Pictures” all failing to build on a very promising start. Thankfully Darkness manage to recover things quite well during the back end but the most critical element that’s missing here, & the one that’s likely prevented “Death Squad” from competing with the big boys of Teutonic thrash, is the lack of decent choruses. Despite the energy & enthusiasm of this music, Darkness never quite manage to put together those couple of obvious anthems that are required to take a solid record to the next level & this is possibly even more important when you’ve completely sacrificed on any sort of originality because it’s just so easy to make unfavourable comparisons. All things considered though, “Death Squad” is still an enjoyable record for an old school thrasher like myself who is always on the hunt for records to fill the void that was left by the demise of the raw electricity & naivety that was so prevalent in the 1980’s. But I can’t help but think that Darkness could have amounted to more than this given what they’ve been able to achieve by simply borrowing the tools of their more highly regarded countrymen. Oh well… Did I really need another German thrash heavy-weight in my life anyway? Possibly not but “Death Squad” does a pretty good job of reminding me of why I fell in love with Teutonic thrash in the first place. 

For fans of: Kreator, Destruction & Necronomicon.

Poland boasts a very strong pedigree in black metal which dates back to the height of the second wave explosion in the mid-1990’s with the likes of Christ Agony, Graveland, Behemoth, Arkona, Sacrilegium & Lux Occulta all ensuring that Polish metalheads would have a local hero to support while they worshipped at the altar of the Norwegians. However, I think it’s fair to say though that the Poles would not manage to elevate themselves to anything greater than a support act during that period & would have to wait until the mid-2000’s to compete at the elite level of extreme metal’s darkest subgenre. That gap would eventually be filled by the earliest works of a mysterious duo from Krakow known as Mgła & they would provide Poland’s extreme metal fanbase with its first black metal superstar; a title they’ve retained relatively comfortably ever since. 

The Mgła story (pronounced “m-gwa” which is Polish for “fog”) would begin in 2000 when 19 year-old multi-instrumentalist Mikołaj “M” Żentara (the son of a well-known Polish actor) & drummer Dariusz "Daren" Piper decided to collaborate on a purely studio-oriented black metal project. Mikołaj’s previous experience amounted to just a couple of minor solo projects under the Arca Funebris & Leichenhalle monikers; efforts that only resulted in crude demo recordings with both following more of an industrial-tinged ambient direction than a metal one.  Daren, on the other hand, had a fair bit more experience under his belt following stints with unheralded underground black metal acts like Blade Of The Sword, Holy Death & Aragon throughout the 1990’s. The pair would record two crude demo tapes during the 2000/01 period (both of which remain unreleased to this day) before deciding to collaborate with Daren’s Holy Death band mate Necronosferatus on a new black metal project going by the name of Kriegsmaschine which would see Mgła’s productivity stifled for the next couple of years. M would continue to juggle Mgła & Kriegsmachine right up to the current day but Mgła’s first noteworthy achievement would come through their involvement in Finnish black metal label Northern Heritage Records’ 2005 “Crushing The Holy Trinity” split album (which also included France’s Deathspell Omega & Finland’s Stabat Mater, Musta Surma, Clandestine Blaze & Exordium) with Mgła’s involvement with the label having been consistent ever since. 

2006 would be another major year for Mgła as it would see the release of two well received EPs, the second one “Mdłości” becoming Poland’s first genuinely classic black metal record. Mgła’s music careers were now well & truly on the up & up but a change was afoot with Daren opting to leave both Mgła & Kriegmaschine in quick succession. It’s unclear as to what the reason for his departure was but one would assume that he & M must have had a major falling out for him to take such a drastic action. Regardless though, it would not see Mgła’s newly found bubble bursting with talented skinsman Maciej Kowalski (also known as “Darkside”) being quickly drafted into both bands & the rest is history really. M & Darkside would proceed to put out high quality black metal under both monikers at sporadic intervals ever since but it would be Mgła’s celebrated 2012 album “With Hearts Towards None” that would take the band to the international stage & would signal the arrival of Mgła as a live performer. It would also be my initiation to the band & to be completely honest, I have to admit that I found it a little underwhelming at the time. It was certainly an enjoyable listen but it didn’t seem to offer much that the great second wave releases of the 1990’s hadn’t already mastered & it hasn’t been a release that I’ve returned to often over the eight years since.  

But this brings us to 2015’s “Exercises In Futility” record which would see Mgła reaching even greater commercial heights & would overtake “With Hearts Towards None” as the elite example of Polish black metal. As with Mgła’s first two full-lengths, it would again be released through Northern Heritage Records; the label having now built a very solid reputation through 16 years of high quality black metal releases from the likes of Clandestine Blaze, Deathspell Omega, Satanic Warmaster, Ildjarn-Nidhogg, Baptism, Inferi, Ride For Revenge, Peste Noire & Stabat Mater. M’s growing experience behind the mixing desk saw him handling the mixing & production duties once again & the result would be a fully developed, stunningly professional & crystal clear realization of his art that may be at least partially responsible for the significant backlash that Mgła have experienced from certain parts of the black metal audience who are still craving ever more lo-fi production qualities. These parties have very little basis for their qualms in my opinion as the quality of sound we receive with “Exercises In Futility” is beyond criticism in my opinion. No, it’s not in any way lo-fi but that hasn’t seen any trade-offs being made in regard to atmosphere. It’s quite simply the perfect platform for Mgła’s sweeping & melodic brand of black metal as it highlights the real strengths in the band’s sound. M’s gorgeous riffs sound thick, pure & precise which helps them to gain maximum value from the often repetitive & trance-like arrangements. It’s interesting that the bass lines are not all that easy to pick out which isn’t terribly important when your rhythm guitar tone has enough natural bass to give the music its imposing menace. Darkside’s cymbals have been afforded an uncommon brightness & vibrancy in order to showcase his impressive skill sets with the rest of his kit having been mixed a little lower in classic black metal fashion. This was presumably intentional & makes a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. There is no reliance on artificial bells & whistles to maintain engagement here with the occasional use of keyboards being employed very subtly & with impeccable timing to enhance the atmospheric peaks. This is definitely not your most abrasive & inaccessible black metal release & it unashamedly thumbs its nose at its competition in that it achieves oodles of atmosphere without ever resorting to gimmicks or self-sabotage as a tool.  

The cover artwork for “Exercises In Futility” has been borrowed from deceased French engraver Marcel Roux with this particular piece from 1908 being known as “L'aveugle” (translation: “The Blind”). It’s a disturbing image & is a fine accompaniment for the overarching lyrical concept which is completely focused on the pointlessness of life, the realization that it doesn’t really matter what you do, think or feel, the ultimate futility of our existence on this earth. It’s an incredibly depressing ideology but not one that’s terribly uncommon for black metal. It’s just that Mgła’s lyrical & musical artistry is so beautifully developed & executed that its themes become a more major part of the experience & by the end of your second listen you’ll likely find yourself genuinely questioning whether things really ARE as futile as they’re suggested to be. 

Similarly, the music Mgła are pushing here is nothing new for the genre. This is an unashamedly black metal release with the band seemingly celebrating the genre’s second wave glory days with a confidence & maturity that’s rarely seen in this game. Mgła really REALLY know their sound & fans of the band’s previous material will not see any major surprising surfacing here although almost every element has been more finely honed & refined with every nuance having a defined purpose. There’s not a lot of variation across the tracklisting but there doesn’t need to be when your execution is this precise & you keep your run time to such a palatable duration. The basis for Mgła’s sound sits predominantly with classic raw Scandinavian black metal however you never lose the feeling that they should be in some way associated with the more melodic approach of Dissection because their reliance on melody is such an important component of their sound. But in saying that, Mgła never take things too far in that regard by losing the overarching menace of the rawer style of black metal so I’d never actually label them as a melodic black metal band despite the shared tools. Perhaps the clean production is responsible for further pushing the claims of that more melodic subgenre? Quite possibly & the lack of reliance on blast beats is probably another factor given the endless fascination that most modern black metal bands seem to have with them. Darkside’s semi-regular use of more open, restrained & rocky beats is certainly something you’d usually associate more with your meloblack crowd too & it’s the obvious weak point of the album for me personally.  

Being the huge old-school Burzum fan that I am, I was very pleased to hear the regular influence of Varg’s more atmospheric brand of black metal on Mgła’s music here too. There are plenty of moments where I can clearly identify particular Burzum tracks as the source of inspiration however I wouldn’t say that Mgła ever really flirt with the atmospheric black metal subgenre for too long. It’s just that the riffs often have a similarly trance-inducing quality to them. “Exercises in Futility V” is probably the best example of this with its opening section owing much to the opening track “Dunkelheit” from Burzum's classic 1996 album “Filosofem”. Most tracks also contain sweeping melodic riffs that often remind me a fair bit of English black metallers Winterfylleth. There’s a majestic beauty to their construction & execution that defies the negative connotations of the lyrical themes & enhances the timelessness of the music which is a strong indicator of the significance of the release. I’d almost go so far as to use the word soothing for some of the more blasting riffs which just goes to show how Mgła manage to maintain the listeners interest through the use of subtle changes in atmosphere regardless of the fact that they generally stick to their musical guns throughout. 

The musicianship on display from the two contributors is nothing short of astounding for a black metal act. The duo very clearly click as musicians with the clinical nature of the performances making it all sound so easy. I don’t think there’s any doubt that they stay well within themselves most of the time though. You get the very distinct feeling that they both have at least another couple of gears up their sleeve & leave a fair bit in the tank by the end of the album. Perhaps this is one of the things that makes “Exercises In Futility” so damn appealing to such a wide audience. They don’t over-complicate things & Darkside knows when to leave space which accentuates the transitions back into the more intense & blasting sections really well. You can easily see how Mgła would offer a greater appeal to the female audience than other black metal artists might & that’s not in any way a criticism. They’ve somehow managed to achieve a suitable level of intimidation without ever completely sacrificing on accessibility. 

M’s execution of the riffs is so tight that he almost sounds mechanical at times but this is an indication of just how on top of his sound he is. You get the feeling that he has complete creative control over Mgła’s sound & deservedly so too. I’m a big fan of everything he does here. He’s clearly well versed in all of the greats of the various black metal subgenres & has only borrowed from the absolute elite which makes “Exercises In Futility” somewhat of a celebration of the genre. There’s really only the one flirtation with a clean guitar sound included with the intro to “Exercises in Futility VI” sounding very much like Anathema. M’s gravel-throated vocals remind me quite a bit of Satyr from Satyricon & are extremely effective. The fact that you can easily make out the depressive poetry of his lyrics provides further enhancement for the thematic content & gives the album’s artistic claims a further boost while his tone is evil enough to spread fear & dread throughout many a kindgom. Darkside’s drumming is even more impressive though. Especially his cymbal work which showcases both his incredible skill & a ridiculous level of attention to detail. His continued use of cymbal rolls is very unusual & I find it to be a real joy to listen to. At times it almost sounds too pretty & intricate for this style of black metal but there’s little doubt that he’s amongst the best drummers in the genre. I genuinely feel that the album wouldn’t have offered the same sort of appeal with another drummer as the simplicity of the riff structures may not have been as well received if not for the ambition & extravagance that Darkside offers us here. 

It’s really pretty hard to understand the backlash that Mgła have experienced over the years. It seems very much like tall poppy syndrome to me as this is a classy flexing of the creative muscles of a band that was clearly at the peak of their powers. Sure it’s a little more melodic than I’m usually able to cope with at times, there are a few rocky beats that I’m at odds with & it essentially takes a similar direction to hundreds of black metal releases you’ve likely heard before but few artists have been as successful in their execution or offered as balanced a result. “Exercises In Futility” is a celebration of black metal as an art form & a bold statement of intent &, as such, it represents not only the pinnacle of Mgła’s career but also of Polish black metal as a whole. 

For fans of: Uada, Kriegsmaschine & Plaga

The English thrash scene of the 1980’s was always a bit different to that of the more celebrated Americans & Germans. It was more about quality over quantity with far less options for consumers to choose from & perhaps this contributed to the comparative lack of fanfare that the Brits received. It’s hard to say but one thing’s for sure & that’s that Birmingham thrashers Sacrilege played a very important role in the development & subsequent growth of English thrash metal in the mid-to-late 80’s. They may not have been the very first UK thrash band. That honour would likely sit with Bristol’s Onslaught whose initial demo tapes saw the light of day way back in 1983 when Metallica & Slayer were only just beginning to make waves off the back of their classic debut albums. But 1984 would see Sacrilege taking their own tentative first steps out into the thrash wilderness & by the time 1985 rolled around we’d see a small English scene being formed with several debut albums being released in quick succession.

When you examine the early English forays into thrash-oriented realms, it’s hard to miss the important role that hardcore & crust punk played in the development of the local scene. Unlike the majority of their American counterparts, the early British thrash releases universally included a strong punk component, at times even being significant enough to compete on an equal footing with the metal one. Perhaps the strength of the local NWOBHM scene of the early-to-mid 80’s was responsible for keeping metalheads from jumping ship & heading over to thrashier waters but the punks seemed to be genuinely excited by the more aggressive & extreme sounds coming out of the early thrash scene. The 1985 debut albums from Onslaught, Sacrilege, Concrete Sox & English Dogs all show the outcome of punks exploring their newly found interest in metal.

Sacrilege began life as a crust punk band in Birmingham, England in 1984. Guitarist Damian Thompson & drummer Andrew Baker had played in d-beat bands Warwound & The Varukers together before Thompson had left to start Sacrilege with vocalist Lynda “Tam” Simpson, a move which saw his former band mate following shortly afterwards. The influence of the early US thrash scene would soon have a major impact on the band’s sound which saw even their earliest demo recordings catering to both audiences. By the time Sacrilege entered Rich Bitch studios in Birmingham to record their debut album “Behind The Realms Of Madness” in July 1985 they were very much a hybrid act. The album would be released through small independent Bristol label Children Of The Revolution Records & not only would it be the release that best signaled the coming of the English thrash metal assault but it also become a major historical landmark as one of the first releases to incorporate a combined crust punk & thrash metal sound. Sacrilege’s lyrical content showed clear signs of the band’s origins too as they took a much more politically charged approach than any thrash metal band had attempted previously which would be a major influence on the early UK grindcore scene. “Behind The Realms Of Madness” would be my first experience with Sacrilege back in the early 1990’s & I have to say that I found it to be more interesting than anything else. I found it very hard to categorize with the unusual production & regular stylistic jumps being initially a little off-putting with subsequent revisits seeing the album gaining more & more traction as I became accustomed to its unique quirks. These days, I perhaps don’t rate it quite as highly as many other thrash fans seem to but I certainly find it to be an enjoyable listen.

So this brings us to the topic of discussion in Sacrilege’s sophomore album “Within The Prophecy” which would be released through London-based label Under One Flag Records in 1987. Under One Flag were a subsidiary label of Music for Nations who had a very strong pedigree in quality metal stretching back to 1983 & by the time “Within The Prophecy” was released Under One Flag had already been responsible for releasing several noteworthy metal albums such as English Dogs “Where Legend Began”, Onslaught’s “The Force” & Possessed’s “Beyond The Gates”. Despite it’s unusual sound, Sacrilege’s new label must have been fairly happy with the result of the “Behind The Realms Of Madness” recording sessions because “Within The Prophecy” would once again be recorded at Rich Bitch Studios with Mike Ivory returning to share the production duties with the band. Bass player Tony May would not participate in the recording with guitarist Thompson handling the bass duties in his absence. Tony had always struggled with the pressures of the recording process & by that stage it had all simply gotten too much for him & he’d leave the band shortly afterwards.

As with the debut, the production job that resulted from the “Within The Prophecy” sessions would be a major talking point & would prove to be somewhat of a love-it-or-hate-it prospect for many fans. “Behind The Realms Of Madness” had commanded a similar response with it’s thick but somewhat muffled guitar tone gaining a cult following amongst underground metal & punk fans alike. It seems like the band had wanted to maintain that sound moving forwards as there are no signs of additional clarity being sought for the follow-up. On the contrary, “Within The Prophecy” offers an even more overwhelmingly filthy guitar tone that is thrust out to the front of the mix & reminds me very much of the early grindcore scene that was just around the corner. The distorted bass tone blends in with the wall of guitars while drummer Andy Baker struggles to compete on a sonic level with a booming snare drum sound being his main defensive weapon. It’s a very noisy sound to be honest, however it has a lot more life to it than the debut with the additional brightness contributing to the overall energy levels & the pure distortion only adding to Sacrilege’s metal credentials despite the lack of definition. In its defense, I don’t think the lack of clarity ever diminishes my ability to make out the riffs & it seems to have been a conscious decision to take more of a mid-tempo approach with this album in order to ensure that the band gained maximum impact from this guitar tone as faster material may have resulted in a messier outcome. The positive of this approach is that “Within The Prophecy” sounds much more extreme than it actually is. The guitar tone masks the simplicity of some of the riffs & it’s doubtful that they would have been as effective with a cleaner production. On the other side of the coin, this style of over-the-top production job does make the album sound a bit samey which can’t be said of its predecessor which included noticeably more stylistic variation. Underneath the noise is a band that clearly isn’t pushing the top tier bands but knows their sound & niche quite well & doesn’t stray outside of their creative comfort zone too much.

“Within The Prophecy” came with some very different cover art to the debut which sported the suitably dark & nasty image of a grim reaper type character stalking a graveyard. This time they went for a photograph of a woman standing by a couple of stone pillars which seem to mark an entrance of some sort & she is being greeted by a murder of crows. It’s a fairly drastic stylistic departure from the debut it has to be said & is nowhere near as effective in my opinion. The image seems far more appropriate for a gothic rock or darkwave release than a thrash metal one & is not done any favours by the colour scheme that’s been employed for both the band’s logo & the album title. The bubbly Sacrilege logo offers very little menace when presented in glistening pale blue & white while whoever opted to go with a purpley pink for the album title should surely have been sacked immediately.

After the initial shock of the production settled, the first thing that most fans noticed about “Within The Prophecy” was the reduction in the crust punk component of Sacrilege’s sound & this was the cause for some concern amongst the band’s more punk oriented fans. It’s a much more metal focused release than “Behind The Realms Of Madness” was although it tends to stick mainly with mid-paced tempos which isn’t something you’d usually associate with a thrash metal release. The record also offers hints at the doom metal sound the band would employ for 1989’s “Turn Back Trilobite” record & as such it marks somewhat of a transitional release for Sacrilege. In saying that though, I feel that the doom metal component of “Within The Prophecy” is generally overstated. Sure, Sacrilege is from Birmingham. But do we really hear all that much Black Sabbath in their sound? I don’t think Sabbath’s influence is as obvious as some reviewers seem to think. It’s more in the structure of some of the groovier down-tempo riffs which often provide a sneaky little hint at the groove metal sound that would be developed in the USA in the coming years.

I have to admit that I’ve always struggled with the idea of Sacrilege as a genuine thrash metal band &, even though “Within The Prophecy” was arguably their thrashiest release, it’s also a very good example of why. Sacrilege’s riffs are rarely something you’d immediately associate with thrash. They’re not often all that fast & rarely employ tremolo picking. In fact, if you really examine them you’ll often find that they’re closer to traditional heavy metal in structure however it’s the guitar tone that makes it almost impossible to make that association as the resulting rawness & atmosphere has a lot more in common with thrash & (in much the same way as the debut) represents the deciding vote in the genrificiation debate with thrash being the victor simply because it’s closer to the truth than the alternatives. I actually read someone referring to the sound of “Within The Prophecy” as “sludge-thrash” the other day & that’s not all that bad a description really. Although the crust punk component has been reduced, extreme metal fans will very easily be able to identify links to grindcore in the groovier mid-paced riffs, particularly during the B-side. It’s really very clear that Sacrilege was a major influence on the early grindcore movement which shouldn’t be all that surprising when you consider the links to early grindcore exponents Unseen Terror through former Sacrilege guitarist Mitch Dickinson (Unseen Terror also including future Napalm Death member Shane Embury). Upon revisiting the album for the first time in years this week, I was actually surprised at just how many riffs reminded me of Terrorizer & Napalm Death.

There are a couple of really cool little keyboard intros & interludes included which definitely add to the atmosphere & the track durations are quite lengthy for a thrash release with just the seven tracks including the epic eleven minute closer “Search Eternal” which beautifully sums up the various elements at play across the previous six songs. It’s interesting that the band have opted not to go with traditional song structures with very few (if any) of these tracks utilizing choruses & I feel that this has contributed to the saminess I mentioned earlier. The faster material at the start of the A-side has a noticeable Dark Angel vibe to it with the lengthy introduction to the opening track “Sight Of The Wise” positively reeking of Slayer’s “Hell Awaits”. In fact, that song is a total trash-fest which probably goes a long way to firming up the album’s thrash credentials. There’s not a trace of punk or doom about the early stages of the record in all honesty. Those elements become far more prevalent as the record progresses.

The musicianship on display is generally pretty basic but is clearly not intended to be a focal point. The use of guitar harmonies is a real strength as they provide a pleasant contrast to the over-the-top rhythm guitar tone & add to the overall atmosphere. I wouldn’t say that Thompson is a particularly talented lead guitarist as his solos are fairly generic but he certainly has a knack for melody when he puts his mind to it. His rhythm playing is pretty sloppy for the most part but this is not really a significant hinderance due to it being partially disguised by the noisy production & also the inherent crust punk street cred that is attached to the band. The drumming of Andy Baker is the clear weakness of the album in my opinion though. A lot of his beats incorporate a swing that may owe a lot to Black Sabbath’s Bill Ward but are often quite bouncy at the same time. Although that may sound good on paper & is certainly a differentiator of sorts, in reality it takes away from the intensity of the music at times & limits the album’s potential to an extent.

As with any female-fronted metal band, Tam’s vocal performance tends to receive a lot more attention than it might otherwise have drawn. In actual fact, her vocal contributions are kept a little bit more minimal than you’ll generally be accustomed to with thrash bands & (perhaps surprisingly) I don’t tend to think of her as one of the more important elements of the album, at least not from a purely sonic point of view. The debut saw her going with an aggressive & punky delivery that offered a little more extremity than we get here where she’s presented in a cleaner fashion. There’s more femininity about her performance here & I wouldn’t say that it’s overly aggressive. She doesn’t exactly “sing” & her limitations are more obvious than they were on the debut as she’s definitely a little more exposed but she does a reasonable job without ever taking the reins as the focal point of the band. She’s definitely a point of difference but Sacrilege tends to rely on the production to give them their x-factor rather than the riffs which aren’t exactly a drawcard when viewed in isolation.

When you take a look at “Within The Prophecy” holistically, my last statement sums up the record pretty well actually. None of the elements of Sacrilege’s sound are taken from the top tier of the thrash metal spectrum however the sum of their parts amounts to significantly more than the individual elements might suggest. One of Sacrilege’s most important attributes is that they know what they do well & make every effort to gain maximum value out of those key components so it’s very hard to be critical. On the contrary, I actually find myself feeling an attraction to “Within The Prophecy” that defies much of the content of my review thus far. There’s a quality to the song-writing that seems to thumb its nose at the lack of vocal hooks & general variation & I never find myself losing engagement. Despite what some critics may think, I find that there’s something to be said for bands that have their own sound & focus purely on what they do well without ever stepping too far outside their comfort zones & the overall consistency of the tracklisting here is testament that this approach works. So much so that I can’t help but rate “Within The Prophecy” ahead of its more highly regarded older sibling. It’s definitely more in line with my personal taste given the reduced punk component which was always going to be an advantage but I think that its more focused approach has had a positive impact on the appeal it offers me too. Overall, it’s a very strong release that’s often overlooked in favour of “Behind The Realms Of Madness” however I think that most thrash fans will enjoy it, regardless of which side of the genre tag debate you might fall on. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that “Within The Prophecy” is my favourite English thrash release to the time.

For fans of: Détente, Onslaught & English Dogs

Sometimes in metal you can uncover an artist that possessed enormous talent & vision but somehow managed to slip through the cracks & miss the boat completely. An artist that was perhaps so far ahead of their time that they simply drifted under the radar without ever drawing the level of attention that they so rightfully deserved. These occurrences seem to be a lot more common these days in an online market that’s completely flooded with bedroom wannabes but it’s much rarer for your more experienced old-school metal fanatic to identify a band from the first couple of decades of metal that is not only regarded as a tier one player in their field but who have also never crossed their radar in any capacity. But that was the scenario I was presented with when I returned to metal following a decade in the musical wilderness in 2009. It seemed quite strange to see an unfamiliar name that was apparently involved in the NWOBHM movement sitting right up near the top of the doom metal charts on several recognized (but inferior) online metal resources as I thought I knew everything there was to know about pre-1998 metal. I'd soon discover that the reason for my ignorance was largely because mysterious London doom metallers Pagan Altar’s legendary self-titled release was in fact recorded as a demo & only saw a proper release in 1998 i.e. the very year my interest in metal had begun to wane. Once I gave the self-titled Pagan Altar release a few listens, I came to the realization that whilst I found it to be a generally enjoyable listen, there were a few elements to it that saw me unable to rate it as highly as most doom fans seem to want to do. The vocals tended to grate on me over time with Terry Jones repeating the same phrasing over & over again. I also found it frustrating that there were portions of very high quality doom metal on display right across the tracklisting but there wasn’t really a song that didn’t see the band diluting it with more upbeat & less effective material at some point. And lastly, the DIY production was always going to be a limiting factor when rating a supposedly classic doom release.

So this brings me to “The Time Lord” EP; an archival release that covers Pagan Altar’s earliest previously unreleased recordings. The band were first formed in 1978 by father & son team Terry & Alan Jones which impressively makes them one of the earliest players in the NWOBHM story; a fact made even more impressive by the clear metal credentials of most of this material. Pagan Altar clearly didn’t waste any time & weren’t short of inspiration as all of the material included on “The Time Lord” comes from the 1978/79 period which pushes Pagan Altar into uncharted territory for the traditional doom metal subgenre which is generally regarded as having kicked off around 1982 through bands like Witchfinder General. I don’t think this can be understated because what we have here is five tracks that are already fully formed & developed rather than yet another 70’s proto-doom exponent whose doom credentials were tenuous at best. In historical context, this could indeed have made “The Time Lord” the first true doom metal record if a) it had seen an actual release & b) you discount Black Sabbath & Pentagram’s 70’s works (which I do). That’s really pretty surprising given that I’d never even heard of Pagan Altar up until 2009.

“The Time Lord” would eventually see the light of day through Swedish label I Hate Records in 2004. It was clearly a good move for I Hate as they hadn’t really released anything of significance up until that point & it would enable them to cash in on the underground buzz that had been steadily building around the reissues of Pagan Altar’s self-titled demo during the mid-to-late 1990’s. I have no idea how the label came across these recordings. Presumably through the band themselves you would think as they reformed the same year as this record came out after discovering that their self-titled release was selling for insane prices online. Nonetheless, the purpose of the original demos is unclear. Given their quality, I would have to guess that they weren’t given an appropriate level of marketing as I can’t understand how a legitimate record deal wouldn’t have eventuated from them to be honest. It’s one of metal’s greatest shames really as there was so much promise in this band right from the very beginning so it would have been interesting to have seen what they could have become had they managed to get their debut album onto the shelves during the height of the NWOBHM in 1980. Unfortunately, it was not to be & we’d be destined to ponder over what might have been for decades to come.

“The Time Lord” E.P. includes just five tracks but spans a full half hour in duration due to the lengthy run times of most of the songs. The first couple of tracks were recorded at a studio in New Cross, London while the other three were laid down at Pagan Altar’s own studio with the band presumably handling production themselves. Despite having been remastered in recent times, the sound quality is of demo tape quality & also gives the impression of having been recorded pretty much live. The self-titled release may well have been a demo recording too but it certainly had a heavier overall sound than what we get here. I would think that some of that can be put down to the time it was produced though as there were very different expectations when it came to recording heavy music in the 70’s with things changing pretty quickly during the early 80’s. Being a doom metal release, the rhythm guitar sound can definitely do with more weight as it comes across as pretty thin, even though it does possess a distinctively 70’s quality that adds to the mystique to a degree. That’s a characteristic that’s shared by the entire release really. There’s an authenticity to "The Time Lord"s sound that makes it a little more endearing than it might otherwise have been. It has depth, substance & meaning. You can really get involved with it on an emotional level. It’s not a quick fix & is not as obvious as what the majority of early 80’s metal would become & that’s an attractive prospect for me personally.

The original I Hate Records pressing of the E.P. came armed with a cover that showed a photograph of a stone bench that was draped in long grass, shrubbery & sunlight. To me this image doesn’t do the doomier side of Pagan Altar's sound justice as it doesn’t accurately reflect the darkness of some of the material, even though it does have an organic 70’s hippy vibe to it that isn’t necessarily without context within the band's noticeably psychedelic sound. The subsequent reissues however, come with the noticeably darker & more mysterious image of a foggy cemetery in front of a spooky stone building with the face of a bearded man (presumably the Time Lord himself) looking down on the scene. It’s a much more suitable accompaniment for the music contained within in my opinion so I’m glad to see that all re-releases have continued with it. 

The early music of Pagan Altar isn’t really all that different to that of the infamous self-titled 1982 release in all honesty. In fact, three of the five tracks were re-recorded for that release & in much the same format too. There’s a fair bit of variation in style evident across the tracklisting which keeps you on your toes without ever sounding jarring. Of the five tracks on offer here, I’d suggest that four of them fall very obviously into the traditional doom metal category with Black Sabbath’s 1970’s material being the obvious inspiration. But there’s a much stronger psychedelic influence to this material than Sabbath ever incorporated with the expansive lead guitar work being very much the result of having crossed Tony Iommi with Hawkwind. I’d suggest that Pentagram’s more psychedelic 70’s material is not a bad point of reference with the lengthy title track following more of a psychedelic rock route than a metal one. In fact, it kinda sounds like a more psychedelic version of the rockier material that Black Sabbath were producing at the time (see 1978’s “Never Say Die!” album) which probably shouldn’t be a surprise given Pagan Altar’s obvious affiliation with their idols. It’s interesting that the atmosphere of almost all of this material seems to keep at least a few toes planted firmly on the rock side of the fence even during the most metal moments which has a fair bit to do with the production &, surprisingly, I find this to provide an extra layer of appeal. I honestly wouldn’t have guessed I’d view it as a positive if you had of suggested it to me beforehand but it’s hard to deny the attraction of an authentic 70’s rock sound for a music tragic like myself.

The musicianship on display is excellent throughout. Particularly from lead guitarist Alan Jones & bassist Glenn Robinson. As highlighted on the self-titled release, Jones is the best thing about “The Time Lord” & it’s his generous contribution that gives Pagan Altar their psychedelic edge. Alan was already a very skilled campaigner with his long melodic solos always being well constructed & full of meaning & intent. Glenn Robinson has quite clearly spent a great deal of time studying at the Geezer Butler School Of Heavy Metal Bass Guitar as he seems to possess a similar understanding of how to run his own race whilst never losing sight of his overall role in the band. His performance here is really interesting & I enjoy it for much the same reasons as I’ve always loved Butler’s contributions to Sabbath. A couple of different drummers have contributed to the different sessions but there’s not a noticeable difference between the two & both have formed a more than reasonable combination with Robinson, with the interaction between the instrumentalists being one of the real strengths of the EP. Interestingly, none of the three contributors to the rhythm section would be around for the recording of the self-titled release in 1982 & neither would rhythm guitarist Les Moody who features on the first couple of tracks which is a very strong indication of the level of ownership the Jones brothers had over Pagan Altar.

As I mentioned earlier, one of my major gripes with the self-titled release was the repetitive nature of Terry Jones’ vocal phrasing but thankfully that doesn’t seem to be an issue with “The Time Lord”. I was actually looking out for it given the shared tracklisting but I couldn’t identify any real problems to speak of. Terry’s delivery is very distinctive but changes a little bit between the tracks with a opener “Highway Cavalier” seeing him employing a gnarlier & significantly gruffer style for example. I didn’t notice it as much on later releases but Terry sounds very much like Manilla Road front man Mark Shelton most of the time & when you take into account the significant psychedelic elements in both band’s early works it creates strong parallels between the two. I think Terry’s voice is well suited to the 70’s psychedelic rock feel of “The Time Lord” & he brings the doomier material a similar haunting quality to Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne. “The Black Mass” is a fine example of this as it’s pure Sabbath worship for the most part while the outstanding vocal hooks in “Judgement Of The Dead” represent the high point of the EP. It’s interesting that I struggled a bit with lengthy closer “Reincarnation” on the self-titled release but here I find it to be a more enjoyable experience. Perhaps the repetition in the vocal phrasing had eventually caught up with me by the time that song graced my ears & the song structure admittedly still lacks direction here but for some reason it seems more attractive despite not being all that different. It could be that the 70’s vibe is more becoming for that particular track with its hippy-ish feel.

Overall, “The Time Lord” is a very consistent release with no weak material included. Occasionally the band will throw in a simpler riff that sounds a touch more basic than I'd like however the vocals & song-writing are generally strong which helps to overcome this issue. The lack of sonic weight in the primitive production job is certainly an inhibitor & there’s no doubt that it prevents me from reaching for the higher scores but I enjoy the classic 70’s hard rock feel of the instrumentation & arrangements which has a timeless quality to it & the fact that the traditional doom metal atmosphere is already in full effect is impressive for such early recordings. I don’t think too many doom fans will be disappointed with “The Time Lord” but the limitations of its format & tracklisting probably make it a little less essential than it might otherwise have been. Still... I have to admit that I slightly favour it over its more celebrated 80's counterpart so there's no denying that it's a pretty decent listen all round.

For fans of: Ozzy-period Black Sabbath, 70’s Pentagram, Manilla Road 

I can still vividly remember my first Cryptic Slaughter experience. I was 13 years old & had just jumped onboard the exciting late 80’s thrash metal juggernaut. I’d developed a strong friendship with another boy in my class & we hung out after school most days. He was a very talented guitarist for his age & he began to teach me how to play. In fact, he even loaned me one of his electric guitars so that I could practice at home & we’d often jam around with his older cousin who was an Alex Van Halen & Charlie Benante obsessed drummer with his own place. One day we were listening to Anthrax’s back catalogue in his disgustingly filthy lounge room when I made a comment about how fast a certain passage was & this seemed to trigger a healthy dosage of scoffing from the two cousins. When I asked what they were laughing about they simply told me to strap myself in before placing a copy of Cryptic Slaughter’s 1986 debut album “Convicted” onto the platter. Needless to say that my mind was well & truly blown by the sheer velocity that was emitted from the cheap ghetto blaster speakers & I quickly realized that I had a lot to learn about metal. I’d end up quite liking the “Convicted” album & those feelings have been maintained over the years which has seen me awarding it a positive rating upon revisiting it earlier this year. It was arguably the fastest thing that had ever been released to the time & is worth exploring for that reason alone but there’s always been somewhat of a running debate in crossover thrash circles over which of the first two Cryptic Slaughter albums is actually the best. I always favoured the debut but it’s been decades since I last gave their sophomore album “Money Talks” a few spins so I thought it might be time to re-evalute that position.  

Cryptic Slaughter first formed in 1984 when they were still in their mid-teens. They all attended the same Santa Monica high school & their mutual passions for Slayer, Venom, Motorhead & GBH would provide the catalyst for the recording of a demo tape entitled “Life In Grave” the following year. This would see them attracting the interest of Metal Blade Records head Brian Slagel who would include the track “Reich Of Torture” on his “Metal Massacre VII” compilation in 1986. It was at this time that the Californian crossover thrash scene was starting to take shape following the release of DRI’s seminal 1985 album “Dealing With It”. DRI had relocated from Houston to San Francisco in 1983 & are generally regarded as the first band to successfully combine thrash metal with hardcore punk. Their fresh new sound would have a major impact on the thriving San Francisco thrash scene & would influence bands like Attitude Adjustment to follow their lead with their own debut album “American Paranoia” hitting the shelves in 1986. The other Californian crossover hot spot could be found in Venice with Suicidal Tendencies front man Mike Muir being the central figure in an exciting new scene that would spawn albums from not only his main band but also his Suicidal Records label signings Excel & No Mercy (Muir’s other band) in 1987. It was amongst this exciting new Californian music landscape that Cryptic Slaughter’s debut album “Convicted” would be created with Metal Blade house engineer Bill Metoyer in 1986 & it would prove to be arguably the fastest & most savage of the early crossover thrash records released globally. The band members may only have been very young but they made up for their lack of technical skills & experience with a raw energy & enthusiasm which would give “Convicted” an appeal that would draw in fans from both metal & hardcore punk audiences. In fact, it would also prove to be a major influence on the early UK grindcore scene with Cryptic Slaughter’s use of blast beats in particular being a major influence on grind acts like Unseen Terror & Napalm Death. The band would subsequently become known as one of the originators of that technique along with artists like S.O.D. & Repulsion. 

I wasn’t much of a hardcore fan at the time but the violence & electricity in Cryptic Slaughter’s music was able to draw me in & I'd find a fair bit of enjoyment in “Convicted”, despite it never threatening to usurp the Slayer’s & Kreator’s at the very heart of my thrash-obsessed teenage esteem. For this reason, I would chase down the band’s second album “Money Talks” through my high school’s black market tape trading network with the older skaters in the year above me generally being my source for securing quality crossover thrash releases. “Money Talks” would once again be released through Metal Blade who were nothing short of a US metal institution by this stage, having been responsible for releasing a whole slew of classic albums since their inception in 1982; Warlord’s “Deliver Us” & “And The Cannons Of Destruction Have Begun…”, Slayer’s “Show No Mercy”, “Haunting The Chapel” & “Hell Awaits”, Trouble’s “Psalm 9”, Omen’s “Battle Cry” & Fates Warning’s “Awaken The Guardian” being just some of the high quality output Metal Blade had been responsible for in the mid 1980’s. As was generally the case, Bill Metoyer would once again be responsible for taking the reins & he would be credited as co-producing the album with the band members themselves. Unfortunately the results would prove to be a little inconsistent in my opinion. “Money Talks” may possess more clarity than “Convicted” but it lacks the energy of the debut. It simply sounds less unified & focused & comes across as a little messy. Scott Peterson’s drum kit certainly sounds bigger & there’s good separation between the instruments with Rob Nicholson’s bass lines being easily discernable throughout however the main problem is with the guitars as they sound weak & thin & have much more of a sloppy punk feel to them than they did on the debut. This is one of the major weaknesses of “Money Talks” in my opinion & I find it strange that many people don’t seem to see it as an obstacle. 

The cover art for “Money Talks” was a definite improvement over the cheap school boy drawing we got with “Convicted” though with Jeff Harp from Long Beach hardcore punk outfit Final Conflict being responsible for the politically-charged image that shows Ronald & Nancy Reagan leading a money-driven campaign of lies & deceit over the American people. This DIY style of image would again provide the influence for a whole slew of similar record covers from UK grindcore bands over the coming years & it’s very much in line with Cryptic Slaughter’s lyrical approach which would touch on some very serious subject matter for a group of teenage boys. The huge influence that the local punk scene had played on this approach is very obvious.  

Where “Convicted” saw Cryptic Slaughter seemingly stamping their feet on the accelerator without ever even considering the option of easing it up, “Money Talks” sees the band adding a little more variety to their approach instead of trying to blast the listeners into submission from start to finish. There’s a stronger use of melody in this material which is highlighted by the employment of slower & noticeably groovy breakdowns within most tracks. Despite the fact that this sounds good on paper, the result isn’t quite as positive because when Cryptic Slaughter aren’t brutalizing their audience into submission they tend to leave their technical failings more exposed to criticism. Personally, I find the breakdowns to be very generic & I don’t think they add much value. I’d much rather see the band sticking to the higher velocity delivery of the debut to be honest & when we do see them dropping their shackles & going for broke they possess the same impressive levels of intensity. There’s a noticeable post punk influence to some of the more laidback bass lines which is interesting though & I find this to be a welcome inclusion. 

The performances of the various band members are very hit & miss & it seems to me that the blasting material tends to hide a lot of the deficiencies in the techniques of the young band members. There are regular timing issues here with drummer Scott Peterson seeming to struggle with the more mid-paced material. In fact, the band sounds like a runaway train a lot of the time with guitarist les Evans also contributing a very sloppy performance. It’s only the raw aggression of front man Bill Crooks that manages to pull the band out of the fire a lot of the time & he represents the clear highlight of the album for mine. He sounds nothing short of psychotic at times with his take-no-prisoners approach being just what the doctor ordered for a metal & punk audience that was now craving ever more extreme feats of human exertion. 

Despite the fact that “Money Talks” is generally regarded as a crossover thrash release, I have to admit that there’s really very little thrash metal included here (or metal for that matter). To my ears, it’s much more focused on a straight-edged hardcore punk sound in combination with the regular use of blast beats so I think the thrashcore tag is a more accurate description of the sound you can expect the hear. There’s no doubt that this contributes to me not rating the album as highly as the debut but the top heavy tracklisting has also played a part. All of the best material is laid on the table within the first four tracks & I find my interest tends to wander through the back end with the last few tracks seeming to peter out significantly. There are no real shockers included but I find it very difficult not to let the production & performance issues taint my listening experience &, for that reason, “Money Talks” has never offered me much appeal. 

For fans of: DRI, Attitude Adjustment & Wehrmacht

Different bands have very different stories. Some will seemingly go from zero to hero in a matter of a year by getting signed almost immediately & laying down their debut album before they’ve even had time to fully develop while others are much more of a slow burn with a number of false starts along the way. New Jersey thrash metallers Hades fall firmly into the latter category with the band’s story having already spanned a full decade by the time their debut full-length hit the shelves in 1987. In fact, the very first incarnation of Hades was formed way back in January 1978 which would have made them arguably the earliest thrash band in existence if they had in fact been a thrash band at the time. This wasn’t the case however. They were still playing radio-friendly hard rock covers & learning to play their instruments but their dynasty had already begun with guitarist Dan Lorenzo having already selected the band’s moniker in a ninth grade mythology class. 

As with so many high school bands, not a lot would happen for a full four years until Hades would find themselves opening for the raw & exciting Twisted Sister who were showcasing their debut “Ruff Cutts” E.P. at the time. This show would prove to be the catalyst for Hades to get more serious with their debut single “Deliver Us From Evil” seeing the light of day shortly afterwards. It was a pretty lackluster affair in my opinion which saw the band pushing more of a traditional heavy metal sound. Live shows would start to flow more regularly at this point however & a couple of cheap demo tapes would soon lead to appearances on the “Metal Massacre VI” & “Born To Metalize” compilations. Vocalist Alan Tecchio, second guitarist Scott LePage & bassist Jimmy Schulman would join the fold in 1985 & another single entitled “The Cross” would follow shortly afterwards in 1986.  

It was around this mid-80’s period that Hades would become more interested in the burgeoning thrash metal movement that was taking the world by storm than your reliable old Maiden’s & Priest’s. Main song-writer Dan Lorenzo would become infatuated with Slayer & Exodus’ debut album “Bonded By Blood” & it would see Hades making a significant change in musical direction. The New Jersey thrash scene had a reasonably strong pedigree in the early years of the subgenre with Overkill & Whiplash being amongst the earliest exponents of the sound but Hades would become a part of a second wave of New Jersey thrash bands that included the more extreme Blood Feast & Blessed Death who had recently abandoned their speed metal roots. 

Things were heating up for Hades with 1987 proving to be the most important year in the band's story thus far. The interest in their second single had led to them signing a recording contract with US label Torrid Records who had made a name for themselves through Exodus’ legendary 1985 debut album “Bonded By Blood”. Torrid co-founders Ken Adams & Todd Gordon would bring in producer David Blake who had previously worked with Hades on “The Cross” single & the three of them would produce the “Resisting Success” album in collaboration with the band themselves. Adams & Gordon had been enormously successful with their involvement in the production of “Bonded By Blood” so this arrangement boded very well for Hades but I have to admit that the result was a little bit of an anticlimax given just how strong, influential & enduring the production job on Exodus’ debut was, particularly that iconic rhythm guitar tone. “Resisting Success” sounds very much like the third tier underground thrash release that it is & that’s mostly due to a tinny guitar tone that doesn’t manage to fully highlight the strength & energy in the riffs & melodies. The rhythm section sound much better however. Particularly the bass guitar which has received a lot of emphasis in the mix & for good reason. I recently read that Jimmy Schulman asked the engineer to give him a similar sound to Chris Squire from legendary London progressive rockers Yes which makes a lot of sense when you hear the result. Drummer Tom “Agh” Coombs’ kick drum has been allocated a fair amount of high end which gives it a noticeable click but it’s nothing too extreme & the drums are generally well presented. This sort of raw but reasonably adequate production job was par for the course for mid-80’s thrash debuts so I don’t want to be too harsh but I just get the feeling that Hades had a little bit more to offer than is shown to us here. 

The cover art for “Resisting Success” is fairly interesting although it’s not exactly in a style the screams of thrash. The medieval looking logo & borders, the Illuminati-style pyramid with the levitating peak, the more subtle album title…. it all seems a little bit more progressive to me & I wouldn’t have been surprised if the music it contained sounded kinda like 70’s prog rock. In fact, there are strong stylistic similarities to the cover art used for the 1979 self-titled debut album from US progressive metal outfit Legend to tell you the truth. Hades music does have a fair bit of sophistication about it at times though & the last couple of tracks offer more than a hint at a progressive influence. Particularly the 9+ minute closer “Masque Of The Red Death” which is a fully fledged progressive metal affair. There’s actually a fair bit of ambition shown for a thrash debut with good complexity throughout the entire tracklisting so I literally felt a penny drop inside my brain when I discovered that Hades had already been around for a decade by this stage. You very rarely see a band having to wait that long to hit the shelves but (in much the same way as the before-mentioned Twisted Sister who formed in 1972) the added experience they’d gained along the way shows pretty obviously here. 

Musically, this is definitely a thrash metal album. Sure, Hades may flirt with other subgenres on occasion but their overall sound sees those moments always sounding like a thrash band that’s trying something different. A lot of that has to do with the crunchy guitar tone & chuggy mid-paced riffs which are distinctively thrash oriented but there are a few old demo & single tracks included that give you a very graphic view of the transition that Hades had taken over time. The more emotionally-charged acoustic-led “The Cross” is probably the most obvious example & it’s the only track that I’d describe as fitting better under the classic heavy metal banner than a thrash one although “Sweet Revenge” (another old single track) is somewhat of a hybrid. That’s not to say that the rest of the material is always flat-out however as Hades aren’t afraid to slow things down for the occasional Sabbath-inspired groove riff. In fact, when they’re at their slowest I can hear distinct similarities to Swedish doom masters Candlemass which is probably emphasized by the operatic vocal delivery. I’ve often seen “Resisting Success” linked with speed metal too but apart from the odd riff in opening track “The Leaders?” I don’t really see it. There's certainly fast stuff included here but Hades tend to traverse a wide array of tempos.

The quality of the musicianship is outstanding for a debut album & this is a real strength for the band. Hades make great use of the twin guitar attack with the lead work all proving to be more than capable. I really dig a band that can use guitar harmonies without ever approaching the cheese line but it’s the rhythm section that impresses me most. Tom Coombs’ drumming is always interesting with his array of fills & cymbal work giving Hades’ sound additional freshness. Bassist Jimmy Schulman is the best thing about “Resisting Success” though as he approaches metal bass playing from a far more progressive direction, regularly employing bass chords as well some quite complex licks & solos. He’s a really talented musician in his own right so I’m not overly surprised that the producers have opted to highlight that in the mix.  

The other major talking point is the contribution of front man Alan Tecchio whose higher register delivery may not be all that common in thrash circles but proves that this approach can be more than effective when it’s done right. His voice occupies a similar space to Agent Steel’s John Cyriis & Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna a lot of the time &, although he’s not always on the money, he usually manages to get by on charisma alone. Alan is definitely at his best when he gets right up there though & I find those sections to be the most satisfying on the record. See album highlight “Legal Tender” for a great example of that as his soaring screams beautifully compliment some exhilarating riff work that reminds me very much of Megadeth’s “Loved To Death”. My only complaint with Alan is that he does occasionally try to force too many words into his phrasing & it ends up sounding a little bit clunky. 

Overall, “Resisting Success” is a pretty good way to kick off a recording career. There are no weak tracks included & there’s an air of professionalism about everything even if the production perhaps doesn’t reflect that as well as it might have. The one negative is that there probably aren’t quite enough highlights to warrant the higher scores. All of this material is of a good quality but it’s rarely great. In saying that though, I;m gonna throw out a big call by saying that I think it was the best thrash debut to come out of New Jersey to the time & that includes Overkill’s “Feel The Fire”. If ythe idea of a sophisticated mid-80's thrash record with higher register clean vocals sounds interesting to you then you could do a lot worse than this.  

For fans of Lååz Rockit, "Spreading The Disease"-era Anthrax & mid-80's Overkill.

The US power metal scene was kind of America’s response to the NWOBHM movement. In much the same way as the British term was employed, the label isn't overly specific. It’s used more as a catch-all for American bands that played a style of heavy metal that was structured in much the same way as the NWOBHM elite but had shunned its hard rock influence in favour of a renewed level of aggression derived from the early US thrash metal movement. Amongst its most celebrated exponents was a Florida outfit known as Savatage who were built around the skill sets of two brothers in Jon & Criss Oliva; Jon the enigmatic front man with the powerful voice & Criss the enormously talented guitar slinger with the gift from God. For just over a decade, Savatage would play a major role in the growth of the still relatively new US heavy metal scene, most notably through a string of four successive classic albums that stretched from 1987 to 1993. However, tragedy would strike in October 1993 when the vehicle Criss & his wife were travelling in was struck by an out of control drunk driver. Criss was killed instantly. Jon Oliva would continue to push forwards with Savatage as a tribute to his brother on & off for many years however the project now seems to have reached its final resting place with no activity since 2015.  

In 1995, German label SPV would announce the release of a tribute album to honour the career of Criss Oliva. SPV had been around for more than a decade by that stage but wasn’t exactly a haven for quality metal with German thrashers Holy Moses’ 1990 album “World Chaos” being their only noteworthy metal record to the time. The release would take the form of a live album that collected recordings from a number of shows spanning the course of a four year period from 1987 through to 1990. Long-time Savatage producer Paul O’Neill would oversee the project, his metal credentials having been predominantly built around his production work on all of the band’s albums since 1987’s “Hall Of The Mountain King” as well as Omen’s “Escape To Nowhere” & Metal Church’s “Hanging In The Balance” records. But it’s very safe to say that Paul knew how to get the best out of Savatage & he was just the man to handle this particular project. 

The release would be known as “Ghost In The Ruins” (a title that Savatage had been considering for their classic 1991 record “Streets: A Rock Opera”) with the sub-text “A Tribute To Criss Oliva”. The album cover would show a simple photograph of Criss playing live on stage with a bright orange light beaming down from behind which left him shrouded in shadow, so the project was very clearly centered around honouring Savatage’s lost hero. It was also very clear that the concept had been borrowed from Ozzy Osbourne’s 1987 live album “Tribute” which was created to honour legendary guitar hero Randy Rhoads who had died in a light airplane crash. The structure of the album is very similar with the inclusion of several short shred sections, one track being an unaccompanied guitar solo & an acoustic rehearsal recording closing out proceedings. I’m honestly not too sure that Criss would have been happy with closer “Post Script”. Sure it’s a beautiful piece but Criss’ performance on that track isn’t exactly clinical as he duffs more than a few notes. I’m certain that he would have liked another crack at it. 

I’m not sure how he’s managed it but Paul O’Neill has done a stellar job at producing “Ghost In The Ruins”. The task of pulling together material recorded at various different venues across a three year period & making it all sound like a single show with a consistent sound production must have been enormous but he’s achieved it amazingly well here. All of the instruments sound great with Jon’s voice being presented with both power & clarity. This is the very epitome of a well-balanced live recording with the guitars being presented at the front of the mix but never overpowering the other elements. In truth, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the rhythm guitar tone on a couple of Savatage’s early releases but songs like “Sirens”, “City Beneath The Surface” & “The Dungeons Are Calling” have never sounded better now that they no longer have to contend with the overly-dry sound their studio versions suffered from. So essentially everything is in place for another undisputed heavy metal classic, right? 

But here’s the thing…. I’ve just never been able to understand the appeal of Savatage. Whilst I’m seriously enamored with Criss’ lead work & find him to be one of the most underrated shredders in metal history, I just can’t get into the albums as a whole. Fans seem to place Jon Oliva up on a pedestal alongside many of the great heavy metal front men of all time but I simply don’t see it. His voice sounds a lot like Udo Dirkschneider trying to do a Rob Halford impression & failing dismally a lot of the time here & it seems to me that he’s been massively overrated over the years. Plus, the song-writing has never presented me with strong enough hooks to lure me back again & again. The only reason I DO find myself returning for semi-regular revisits is to see if I’ve finally reached a stage in life where I can appreciate the quality that everyone else in the metal scene seems to find in Savatage’s music. 

Stylistically, Savatage are often associated with the power metal or progressive metal camps but in truth they’re just a straight down the line heavy metal band who doesn’t mind a bit of theatricality. I guess I’m not exactly the target audience for those sort of theatricalities to be honest as they come across as pretty cheesy most of the time. A song like the lengthy long power ballad “When The Crowds Are Gone” is a fine example of this as it sees me being reminded of KISS’ ultra-cheesy “God Gave Rock & Roll To You” from the “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” soundtrack more often than is healthy for a metal band. In saying that though, it also shows that the more expansive material from an album like “Gutter Ballet” can be translated to the live environment better than I would have thought it might have however there’s not a lot that I would say is genuinely progressive here. Sure, there are some tracks that were built as part of an over-arching album concept & additional instrumentation has been included to add weight & interest but the orchestration & song structures aren’t consistently expansive or experimental enough to warrant being tagged as progressive.  

With the exception of the previously mentioned acoustic number, Criss’ performance is nothing short of mind-blowing. He utilizes an exceptional technique to pull off light-speed runs with an ease that leaves old shredders like myself wanting to dump our guitars in a ditch by the side of the road. He really was an enormous talent & his lead work is both majestic & exhilarating here. Whilst many shredders were simply regurgitating the work of their idols, Criss would take the influence of guitar gods like Eddie Van Halen & Randy Rhoads & create something all of his own that was undoubtedly very technical yet never lost sight of the fact that a classic solo also needs to offer memorability to be most effective. It really is a shame that I can’t consistently enjoy the rest of Savatage’s sound because it seems like Criss’ talent is completely wasted on me. The half time arena-style ride bell use that drummer Steve Wacholz seems to favour so much does a great job at nullifying any interest that might have been building for me. I’ve always wanted more metal drumming from Savatage but it seems that they’ve never quite been able to let go of their commercial aspirations so are more comfortable for the engine room to simply play a supporting role. 

So why am I even reviewing “Ghost In the Ruins” when I know full well that I haven’t liked any of the Savatage records I’ve reviewed previously? Well, there have always been one-off songs that I’ve quite liked & the idea of a live best-of left me hopeful that once all of the filler was removed it would leave me with an album that offered me a more consistent level of appeal. And to be honest, I was actually feeling pretty positive about the chances of that happening after the first three tracks too as they’re all very enjoyable (particularly “24 Hours Ago” which is the best of the proper songs included in my opinion). But things take a sharp downward curve towards the middle of the record with four of the next five songs leaving me frustrated & bored. They pick things up again in the back end with a solid procession of enjoyable tracks & Criss’ brilliant unaccompanied guitar solo closing out the album well but the damage had already been done during that mid-section I’m afraid. Songs like “Strange Wings”, “Gutter Ballet” & “When The Crowds Are Gone” simply have too much of a hard rock radio flavour for my liking & would sound much more appropriate in a huge arena than a down & dirty metal venue. That’s really the element that I struggle with the most here & the fact that Jon’s voice doesn’t connect with me like it seems to with Savatage’s rabid fanbase sees me destined to never quite understand their immense popularity in heavy metal circles. “Ghost In the Ruins” may be the best Savatage release I’ve heard to date & long-time fans will unquestionably find themselves in raptures of enthusiasm over it but this band simply isn’t for me. 

For fans of: Metal Church, Virgin Steele, Queensryche

Crossover thrash… it’s always been more of a niche subgenre really. In fact, when most metalheads hear that term mentioned there’s usually only a short list of bands that pop into their minds & almost all of them are American with California being one of the more notorious breeding grounds for these hybrid groups (along with New York of course). Historians investigating the roots of the Californian scene will almost certainly begin by looking at two key occurrences. One would be the relocation of D.R.I. from Houston to San Francisco in 1983 with D.R.I. going on to become a huge influence on the early crossover scene. Their 1985 debut album “Dealing With It” represents arguably the first genuine crossover record to be released globally & it would provide the basic building blocks for other East Coast bands like fellow San Franciscans Attitude Adjustment & Santa Monica’s Cryptic Slaughter to launch their careers off with 1986 seeing full-length releases from both acts. 

Now, you may be waiting for me to announce the second key moment as Suicidal Tendencies’ self-titled debut album from 1983 but that’s not exactly where I’m going with this. Suicidal’s debut was indeed a very important & influential record for the local scene but it wasn’t technically a crossover thrash release in my opinion. The band were still closer to a standard hardcore outfit at that point. Sure, they may have incorporated some flashy, chorus-effected guitar solos into their repertoire which was generally discouraged in the punk scene but there wasn’t a major metal influence on the riffs & song structures just yet. That element of the band’s sound wouldn’t be fully developed until talented guitarist Rocky George replaced Jon Nelson in their lineup the following year; a lineup change that would prove to be more significant than any of the band members probably realized at the time as it would subsequently alter the course of Californian crossover history. 

Suicidal Tendencies’ sophomore album wouldn’t be released until 1987 which was a full four years after their debut had taken the underground by storm. By that stage the crossover thrash sound had been fully formed & defined by bands like D.R.I., S.O.D. & Corrosion Of Conformity, so why are Suicidal so often referenced as being one of the innovators? Well for starters, the band was first formed in the Venice beach area way back in 1980 which predates almost all of the other key players & secondly, they always had small elements of metal in their sound & had been an influence on the early thrash metal bands like Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica & Slayer with their 1983 hit single “Institutionalized” building a sizable cult following after introducing the MTV audience to hardcore. But it was arguably the involvement of Suicidal front man Mike Muir in building the Venice crossover scene that was the most important factor. A year after Rocky had joined the band, Muir would put together his own label known as Suicidal Records, intended primarily to give local hardcore & crossover bands an avenue for releasing their music. The label’s first release would be a compilation record entitled “Welcome To Venice” which included the Suicidal track “Look Up… (The Boys Are Back)”; a song that would see Suicidal pushing further out into more metal-infused waters than ever before. Interestingly, the record would also include material from Muir’s other two bands, Los Cycos (also featuring Suicidal bassist Louiche Mayorga & former guitarist Grant Estes) & No Mercy (with guitarist Mike Clark who would join Suicidal in 1987), along with fellow Venice locals Beowulf & Excel. All of these acts would become the basis for the Venice crossover scene in the years to follow with Beowulf, No Mercy & Excel all releasing their debut albums in 1986/87 which made “Welcome To Venice” quite significant in the grand scheme of things. 

The success of the debut would see Suicidal signing with Caroline Records (i.e. the New York sub-label of Richard Branson’s London-based Virgin Records) for the follow-up “Join The Army”. Caroline hadn’t made all that big an impact with their previous undertakings but “Join The Army” would prove to be their first release to gain any genuine success with Suicidal reaching number 100 on the Billboard charts, most likely off the back of the popularity of “Institutionalized” as well as their strong following in the skateboarding scene. The cover artwork would be quite distinctive & I feel that this has played a part in the success of the album. The picture of a muscular solider making an obvious call to arms seems to be quite an ingenious play really. It’s not the most professional of images however it’s done well enough to satisfy the DIY punk rock & skateboarding philosophies but also draw in a new audience of fans who were looking to be a part of something fresh & underground. For this reason, the album cover has gone on to gain somewhat of a cult status in metal circles & is still instantly recognizable to this day. 

The band would co-produce the album with Primus bassist Lester Claypool whose only previous production experience with a metal-related release came through the 1984 live album “Live Sentence – No Parole From Rock ‘n’ Roll” from Graham Bonnet-fronted LA hard rockers Alcatrazz which would be followed up by engineering credits on the first two solo albums from super-talented young Alcatrazz guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. The result was probably not quite what the band would have hoped for as “Join The Army” certainly doesn’t sound as punchy & energetic as it’s more highly regarded older sibling. This is mainly due to a very tinny rhythm guitar tone that had much stronger ties to the hardcore scene than it did with metal. The guitars were also left too far back in the mix & there are some noticeable variations in both volume & balance across the tracklisting. The rhythm section sound much better & are able to overpower the guitars fairly comfortably with Louiche Mayorga’s bass guitar tone being the driving force behind the album. 

Despite being touted as the most important release in the growth of the crossover thrash subgenre by many, I have to say that “Join The Army” isn’t the most thrashy or metal sounding record. In fact, I’d suggest that the “crossover thrash” tag isn’t entirely accurate because this is definitely more of a transitional release that sees Suicidal still in the process of diluting their early hardcore sound. There’s really only a couple of genuine crossover thrash tracks included to be honest (see opener “Suicidal Maniac” & album highlight “I Feel Your Pain… & I Survive”) although there are further hints across some of the other tracks as well. The major component of the band’s sound was still hardcore punk in my opinion with more than half of the tracklisting sitting fairly comfortably under that banner. Perhaps this is contributed to by the guitar sound I mentioned earlier because it’s not particularly conducive to metal. There’s a reasonably strong influence from traditional heavy bands like Black Sabbath & Motorhead here too though with songs like the title track & “A Little Each Day” seeing Suicidal incorporating chuggy, mid-paced metal riffs just as often as they do your fast-paced & thrashy tremolo-picked ones. The skate punk links tend to be more of an aesthetic thing rather than anything attached to the band’s sound & I’d hazard to suggest that it’s really just the video clip for skater anthem “Possessed To Skate” that’s mainly responsible for that.  

One of the big differentiators from most of Suicidal’s peers in the 80’s hardcore & crossover scenes was the technical skill of the band as Suicidal show off a lot more talent than most of their competition were capable of at the time. They really were a very tight unit with each of the musicians sounding like they're in total control of their instruments. The performance of bassist Louiche Mayorga is of particular note as I’m really impressed with his contribution. There’s a lot of energy about his playing & he & drummer R.J. Herrera clearly have a very strong background in the punk scene. It’s interesting that Rocky George played in a hardcore punk side project band called Pap Smear from 1984-86 alongside Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman & drummer Dave Lombardo & I have to wonder whether that was where he picked up his interest in thrash. Rocky George is clearly a very talented shredder in his own right & is one of the real drawcards of Suicidal’s classic period releases for me personally. By his own admission, Rocky had an obsession with the elite musicians from all genres & you can hear that in just how confident & capable both his rhythm & lead work are. Suicidal always incorporated guitar solos (much the chagrin of punk purists) however Rocky was able to take things to another level &, in doing so, played the major role in gaining the attention & approval of a metal audience. 

One of the other major talking points of the “Join The Army” album is the change in direction from band leader & front man Mike Muir. The debut had seen him taking a more traditional hardcore approach to delivering his lyrics but here were see him moving in a couple of different directions. At times we find him toning back his aggression for a cleaner & more melodic delivery which often highlights his technical deficiencies. In fact, he can be quite pitchy during these moments & I find them to be pretty tough going for the most part. Then at other times he seems to be attempting to hit on a more gruff & muscular metal-oriented tone that’s equally ineffective. He really does annoy me here & I don’t think he was quite up to the task at this point in his career which actually results in him being the major contributor to me not really getting a lot of enjoyment out of the album overall. I honestly don’t think there are too many problems with the music from an instrumental point of view. It’s really just the Mike’s dodgy performance & the weaker production that put me off a bit along with the continual use of hardcore style gang vocals. 

Ultimately, “Join The Army” is a representation of a band that was still in transition from a very successful & confident hardcore punk band into a metal/punk hybrid. As I suggested earlier, I think it will still appeal more to the open-minded hardcore fan than the Big Four obsessed thrasher but almost every song incorporates some sort of reference to metal. I guess the crossover thrash tag is probably used as more of a catch-all given that there wasn’t really any other genre tag that fit at the time but I have to seriously doubt the credibility of statements that link “Join The Army” with the birth of the crossover thrash subgenre. I mean there were literally dozens of other crossover releases around between 1985-87 & many were of a much higher standard & sported a much more defined hybrid sound than what we get here. Perhaps it’s just a matter of taste though as the most iconic songs here seem to be some of the ones that appeal to me the least (particularly the God-awful title track which sounds more like Kid Rock than it does S.O.D.). “Join The Army” is a fairly inessential release in the Suicidal Tendencies discography &, although it could be regarded as a necessary evil for the role that it played in the development of their sound, I’d suggest skipping it & moving on to their next few releases. 

For fans of: DRI, Cro-Mags & “Animosity”-period Corrosion Of Conformity

Nashville, Tennessee…. it’s not exactly a location that immediately brings to mind vicious mosh pits or light-speed tremolo riff sessions now, is it? And for good reason too. But by the mid-to-late 1980’s, metal had made such a mark on popular culture that it wasn’t uncommon to read of bands like Intruder who were fighting against local stereotypes & producing their own brand of high intensity music, all in the name of replicating their metal idols. Intruder are generally regarded as a thrash metal act but the truth is that they’d yet to discover Slayer by the time they recorded their debut album “Live To Die” in 1987 & their sound was still more in line with speed metal; a subgenre that had thrived in the United States in the preceding few years with several of the major cities becoming hot beds for the sound. New York’s Anthrax & Original Sin, Chicago’s ZnöWhite & Damien Thorne, Los Angeles’ Savage Grace, Agent Steel & Abattoir, Atlanta’s Hallows Eve & New Jersey’s Blessed Death had all had a crack at appeasing the speed gods by this stage so these were exciting times for American speed metal fans. 

Intruder first formed as a four-piece way back in 1984 but were still known as Transgresser in those days. They were pretty much a Black Sabbath covers band to begin with but gradually integrated some original material into their repertoire over time which would result in two demos being recorded in 1984 & 1986; the second of which would lead to a single album recording deal with Iron Works Records. Iron Works was a sub-label of Californian label Azra Records & had previously enjoyed some success with Jag Panzer’s debut album “Ample Destruction” & (to a lesser extent) Liege Lord’s first up effort “Freedom Rise”.  It was a deal that would see the band making the difficult decision to change their moniker to one that better suited their sound due to many fans seeming to link the word Transgresser to Satanic black metal. 

Intruder’s debut album “Live To Die” would be recorded locally at Treasure Isle Studios in Nashville in 1987 with producer Tom Harding who was mainly known for his work with country artists like Lyle Lovett & Marie Osmond. It would be one of the very first US metal releases to be recorded purely digitally after Manowar had tested the waters with their “Fighting The World” album earlier that year. Interestingly though, the record would come out sounding pretty good for an underground speed metal debut, despite the guitar tone varying a little between tracks. All of the instruments can be easily identified with the rhythm guitars managing to overcome a particularly loud & boomy snare sound that really cuts through the mix. The lead guitar tone is nice & shreddy & really highlights the obvious skills of talented axe-man Arthur Vinnett.  

The cover artwork for “Live To Die” is worth mentioning as it doesn’t really represent the sound that Intruder were pushing at the time all that well. It’s a pretty disconsolate looking image that would be much more appropriate for a depressive funeral doom metal release than an up-tempo speed metal affair but at least it’s attractive to a metal audience, even if it might not be the specifically desired subsection.  

Despite already having stated my opinion on the most suitable genre tag for “Live To Die” earlier on in the review, it’s not actually all that clean cut as there are also tracks that move predominantly in the thrash metal & heavy metal space even though there’s often a bit of cross-pollination going on. I’m guessing that this can mainly be put down to the fact that the band were still very much in transition from a more traditional heavy metal band into one that focused entirely on the relatively new thrash metal craze that had taken over the underground. This is evident in the way that many of the songs hit kind of a middle ground between two styles. For that reason, it’s not all that easy to pick out any obvious influences. One moment you’ll be hearing a bit of Whitesnake or Van Halen, then later in the same track you’ll find the likes of Anthrax springing to mind but Intruder never really sound all that intimidating for a supposed thrash band. 

A lot of that is due to the more traditional & accessible performance from front man Jimmy Hamilton whose delivery sits comfortably on the more melodic side of the thrash/speed metal equation. Jimmy can really sing when he puts his mind to it & I’d describe his tone as sitting somewhere between former Riot front man Guy Speranza & Anthrax legend Joey Belladonna. The question of whether he’s an ideal fit for a speed metal band is worth asking though. I think he does a really good job here however I have to admit that I regularly find myself thinking that he would have made a great hard rock singer. The rest of the band are all well qualified for their tasks too & always have a great energy about them. There’s some good complexity to the arrangements without ever sounding like the band were trying to be overly showy. But the star of the show is definitely lone guitarist Vinnett who slays pretty much every solo here. He’s an extremely talented shredder & I actually find a few of his solos to be powerful enough to lift some of the flatter material to another level. I have to wonder how he sounded without the additional rhythm guitar tracks in a live environment though. The few acoustic guitar sections are a lovely touch but I can do without the semi-regular use of gang vocals to be honest. 

It’s hard to fault a record like “Live To Die”. The tracklisting is generally very consistent with only slower heavy metal number “Cold-Blooded Killer” falling a little flat. I can really appreciate the quality of the musicianship & composition & find myself engaged throughout most of the album but I think Intruder were just lacking a bit in the hooks department at this point in their career. They also sound a little too light-weight to really drive their point home at times & perhaps that’s got something to do with the fact that they chose to record with a country music producer.  This is compounded by the fact that the less intense numbers tend to be the weaker ones & (perhaps unsurprisingly) I tend to gravitate towards the thrashier songs like album highlight “Victory In Disguise”. There’s certainly some good metal here with more than enough energy to get most thrashers jumping around a mosh pit but Intruder weren’t threatening the Big Four at this stage.  

For fans of: Lååz Rockit, ZnöWhite, Anthrax 

We all know the story by now & probably have for more than 25 years. Two teenage brothers with a music producer for a father start a glam metal band & record a succession of arguably substandard albums in daddy’s studio before taking a drastic stylistic u-turn in which they’d manage to single-handedly invent the groove metal subgenre & become one of the biggest metal bands in the world. 1992’s “Vulgar Display Of Power” album would not only consolidate the concepts that had been presented on Pantera’s 1990 breakthrough album “Cowboys From Hell” but it would also see their new sound receiving further refinement & definition in a clear statement of intent. In doing so, it would become the benchmark for the groove metal subgenre for decades to come & would also influence the creation of a number of additional subgenres which would focus on different elements of the Pantera sound.

Despite the subsequent tragedy that would put any chance of a Pantera revival to rest, their story was somewhat of a fairytale which made them an easy target for people that were looking for a reason to question the merit of their seemingly overnight success. Tall poppy syndrome is rife in the global metal scene & they would have to deal with the ongoing backlash from former fans who would turn on them purely because they’d gained popularity. There were also those that would abandon their idols due to their distaste for their many copy-cats & the subgenres they’d pioneer. It’s all more of an image thing in my opinion & I can still remember feeling a bit of pressure to understate my passion for Pantera’s music with my schoolmates once they hit the big time & were the talk of the schoolyard. But the truth is that I had a strong connection with the band for several years. I’d picked up on “Cowboys From Hell” very early & had given it a good old thrashing prior to the release of “Vulgar Display Of Power” which would be a regular in my home stereo & Walkman along with the follow-up “Far Beyond Driven”. But strangely, at some point I must have lost touch with Pantera because it’s been decades since I last explored their highly regarded “Vulgar Display Of Power” record & I have to admit that I’m keen to see whether it still stands up today.

The album would be the band’s second for Atco Records which was a subsidiary company of the huge major label Atlantic Corporation. There’s little doubt that this major label support was a significant factor in both the exposure that Pantera would receive & also the quality of the product they were able to produce. Having said that though, I’ve never thought that the cover artwork for those first two breakthrough records was anything to write home about. Sure, Pantera’s music left many feeling like they’d received a swift & unexpected punch to the face but the image has always seemed kinda dumb to me personally & it’s for that reason that I never thought about purchasing a “Vulgar Display Of Power” t-shirt to tell you the truth. If you wanted to pin point the major negative connotation that people had with the band during their glory years it was that they were a bit of a yobbo band for unintelligent meatheads to get violent to & I honestly think that the album cover has contributed to that concept along with Phil Anselmo’s drunken chest-beating. The band’s logo looks like it was created on a Commodore 64 with a dot matrix printer too.

The recording of “Vulgar Display Of Power” would once again see renowned metal producer Terry Date overseeing the project in conjunction with drummer Vinny Paul. The band & label were obviously very happy with the result of the “Cowboys From Hell” sessions so it would seem to have been a bit of a no-brainer. Terry had already accumulated a strong metal resume by the time he became involved with Pantera with his list of credits including artists like Metal Church, Dream Theater, Overkill & Soundgarden, although his horizons had looked even brighter since with Overkill’s “Horrorscope”, Dark Angel’s “Time Does Not Heal” & Soundgarden’s “Badmotorfinger” having further propelled his reputation & ensured that he was in high demand by metal musicians for many years to come. And you can easily see why too because “Vulgar Display Of Power” offered everything you could want from a professional 90’s metal production. Everything sounds super crisp & full of life with a very guitar-heavy mix & a lot of depth in the drums. Vinny’s kit definitely has a fair amount of click to it but the toms sound like deep tubs of infinite weight & his kick drum combines beautifully with Rex’s warm bass sound. Dimebag’s guitar tone is crushingly thick & makes full use of the mid-range scoop technique that was so popular at the time with bands like Metallica & Overkill. Overall, it’s a very 90’s sounding record & is as polished as you could want from a major label release. I don’t doubt that the quality of the production has had a noticeable impact on the album’s success.

So if “Vulgar Display Of Power” is the record that truly defined the groove metal sound, what exactly did it do differently? Did they simply take the musical style of Exhorder’s two-track demo tape & run it through a major production budget with a name producer or give the early groove metal sound that White Zombie’s sophomore effort had pushed a bit of meat on its bones? Well I have to admit that I was possibly one of the first people to raise the Exhorder comparisons & I came to that conclusion without ever having heard or read about similar theories elsewhere. I didn’t just pluck the idea out of nowhere so it must have some merit to it but there’s a lot going on here that indicates that Pantera were the sum of many long-term influences & not simply cashing in on another band’s sound. I mean there are a lot of different elements at play here & when you actually lay them all out in front of you it becomes very clear as to why Pantera would become so successful during a period when the rest of the metal scene would be forced to evolve or fade into obscurity. Pantera simply seemed to have all bases covered. To elaborate a bit, the basis of the classic Pantera sound comes from a combination of three main elements in my opinion; all of which were as close to sure-fire winners as you’re likely to find in the early 90’s market. Firstly, you’ve got a very strong Black Sabbath influence that focuses heavily on the power of the riff. I’m mainly thinking about the “Master Of Reality” & “Vol 4” era Sabbath & Pantera has picked up a lot of their heaviness & groove there. Particularly in the way that they employ some of their melodic riffs whilst never sacrificing on overall heaviness. They often remind me of some of those classic stoner metal riffs that Sabbath started to employ across those albums, especially when combined with a wah pedal. Check out the bridge riff in “Live In A Hole” as a prime example. The other classic metal influence that’s pretty easily identified is that of Ozzy Osbourne’s Randy Rhoads period solo albums & not only in the lead guitar work. Some of Dimebag’s riffs are pretty clearly inspired by Randy’s more angular & melodic riff work with the verse riff from “Live In A Hole” being a prime example.

The second major component of Pantera’s makeup is the thrash metal one which is perhaps a little less prominent than it was on “Cowboys From Hell”. The band have always stated that they were heavily influenced by the likes of Metallica & Slayer. I don’t hear much Slayer in “Vulgar Display Of Power” but the Metallica influence is very obvious in both their faster, thrashier moments as well as the mellow first half of “Hollow” which reeks of your more commercial Metallica works like “Nothing Else Matters”. “Fucking Hostile” is pretty much entirely based on Metallica’s thrash sound with even the guitar solo sounding remarkably like it could have been lifted from “…And Justice For All” while the faster parts of “Rise” instigate similar feelings. The most brutal track on the tracklisting however (& unsurprisingly my clear favourite) is “By Demons Be Driven” which seems to lead the way for Fear Factory’s precision industrial metal assault later in the year but my point was that two of the three major components Pantera had built their sound on came from the most widely celebrated names in metal music in Black Sabbath & Metallica which was always going to be a good platform to work off.

The third component is just as important though. Particularly given the time that “Vulgar Display of Power” was released. The early 90’s had seen the grunge & alternative rock movement completely wiping out a lot of metal’s commercial aspirations with many of the big names electing to dilute their sound in a bid to stay relevant. Pantera took a slightly different but much more effective approach by sneakily finding ways to incorporate the best bits from many of the biggest alternative acts & it’s surprising just how much of this can be found on the album. I actually think that the seamless implementation of this element of their game enabled them to be embraced by the alternative scene at the time while a band like Anthrax or Motley Crue might not have been, despite similar endeavours, & I have to wonder how much Terry Date had to do with it given his history with bands like Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone & Screaming Treea. Take a listen to the clean verses from “This Love” for example & tell me they don’t sound like Alice In Chains. Or perhaps investigate “No Good (Attack The Radical)” whose verse takes a stab at a funky Faith No More groove before crossing over into a sound that seems far too similar to the one we’d hear from nu metal bands like Korn in the coming years. Yep… Pantera weren’t just trying to fit in with the alternative scene. They were influencing them back too.

Probably the biggest revolution that the band was responsible for was the use of the rhythmic bottom string chug riffs that would sprout a number of off-shoot subgenres. Nu metal is the obvious one but how about djent? I have absolutely no doubt that Meshuggah built their sound from the off-beat Rush-inspired chug riffs like the verse of “A New Level” or the chorus of “Live In A Hole”. How about the rap metal subgenre then? There are certainly some riffs included that share a similar quality to those that Rage Against The Machine would take to the top of the charts later on in 1992 & check out the solo in “By Demons Be Driven”. Sound much like something Tom Morello would use? What about metalcore? There’s no denying that chunky groove-oriented breakdowns & aggressive (but still somewhat) melodic hardcore style vocals became all the rage after this record blew up. And finally, where would the wealth of US groove metal bands like Machine Head be without riffs like the chorus of “A New Level”. In fact, come to think of it, if you chucked some guttural death metal vocals over that chorus it’d basically amount to genuine death metal.

BUT! Would any of this have even been possible if this was Pantera’s debut album? I don’t think so. I actually think that a major ingredient in the band’s success was the musical maturity they’d gained after almost a decade in the scene. I mean it’s extremely unlikely that a bunch of kids could pull all of those influences together & present them in such a well-developed package without the assistance of extensive composition & recording experience. After all, the performances here are absolutely fucking phenomenal. The rhythm section are super tight with the kick drum & bass guitar sounding like a single entity. Vinny’s beats are certainly ultra-heavy but they never lose that underlying groove that gave Pantera a touch more accessibility than their competition & he & Rex really set the perfect platform for the main attraction to do his work. To be honest, I think Dimebag Darrell was the most unique lead guitarist the world had seen since Randy Rhoads as he’d developed his own style in a completely self-taught, non-theoretical fashion without the rules that are generally followed by classically trained axe-men & for that reason he was able to develop skills that no one had even dared to attempt. To top it off, he had truly mastered his craft by this stage in his career. Randy’s influence is undeniable. As was Eddie Van Halen’s for that matter & all three possessed some sort of x-factor that left me feeling that you could simply point them out the way to the stage, stand back & watch the magic. A mark of just how talented this bloke was can be seen during the solos where he’s unaccompanied by any additional guitar tracks. Not many metal guitarists could get away with that & it certainly helps that he’s got such a killer rhythm section to back him up. I don’t think you can buy the sort of synchronicity that comes with growing up together whilst learning your instruments.

Vocally, we can see Phil Anselmo continuing a transformation that began on “Cowboys From Hell”. This time he’s dropped a bit of his more melodic side & has focused much more intently on raw anger & vitriol. I actually think Phil took the art of aggressive metal vocals & made it acceptable in a commercial sense with this record. He was able to achieve this by leveraging his louder-than-life attitude & in-your-face appearance which offered huge appeal for all of the battlers out there who now wanted working day heroes who rejoiced in their imperfections in a similar way to the grunge movement. It was just what people wanted after the glitz & ponce of the glam metal dominated 1980’s & his hardcore punk look & persona certainly helped him to gain further crossover appeal.

To be honest, “Vulgar Display Of Power” doesn’t exactly sit in my comfort zone from a stylistic point of view. I don’t mind the groove metal sound but it’s never been something that I’d actively go out of my way to chase down. Pantera is a bit different because, as I’ve shown here, there’s a fair bit more on offer both musically & technically. In saying that though, I’m actually surprised that I couldn’t get my rating up higher than I have given that the album contains riffs of the standard of the main riff in "Mouth For War" (which is one of the greatest in the history of recorded music in my opinion). Almost every track is of a very high quality with the possible exception of closer “Hollow” which suffers from a horribly cheesy first three minutes before making a good recovery in the back half thanks to a superb Dimebag metal riff. But I don’t think there’s quite enough genuine highlights to give me the consistent shivers I require for my higher marks. I guess the likes of "Walk" & "Fucking Hostile" have never quite hit me as hard as they did for most fans. It’s really a taste thing more than a quality one as it’s hard to complain about a record that’s so beautifully executed. Pantera had genuinely acquired “a new level of confidence & power” & it shows very clearly with an album that’s unlikely to disappoint many metal fans regardless of your genre preference.

For fans of: Exhorder, Lamb Of God, Machine Head