Had seen this album hyped up a few times online over the years, so was super excited to come across it in a cheapo bin. Unfortunately the disc was way more scuffed up than I would have liked, but I can live with it for the price.
This isn't the most brutal thrash album ever, but it's still super intense, especially considering the year it was released, and that intensity helps carry the music tremendously. Musically it largely avoids any modern trends of the late '90s or '00s, but it doesn't feel consciously old-school, either. The hardest thing to accurately describe here is the significant death metal component to the music. When the band are playing fast, it generally sounds very thrashy, and the DM influence is usually negligible except for a beefiness to the guitars. But there are definitely some death metal grooves in some of the slower material, and this is only compounded by the guttural secondary vocals (some of the blastier parts also get rapid-fire grindcore vox). I'm unsure how exactly I'd label the band overall. It never quite feels like deaththrash in the old school way I'd use the term, and saying something like thrash with death influences feels kind of wonky too. The CD feels much more on the thrashy side to me overall, but just calling it plain thrash with no mention of any kind of death metal influence at all seems extremely disingenuous.
I'm not a huge fan of the vocals, which are more on the shouty side. They're serviceable, but the style edges this towards more of a modern thrash vibe that I could do without. Would have much rather had caustic Morbid Saint/Kreator-style vox. My other minor complaint is that songwriting seems kind of samey at times and a little underwhelming. Again, the speed and intensity here (the 9 tracks clock in at ~33min.) allow the band to power right through, but after the CD was over, I found that overall feeling of intensity to be way more notable than any of the individual songs or riffs...With one exception.
The final track is an unlisted cover of Slayer's "Angel of Death." Musically it might be the best cover of it I've ever heard thus far. My only gripe is the vocals unnecessarily switch to the guttural style for the choruses. They did such a great job with it that it ends up being a double-edged sword, as it overshadows their original material to a significant extent, easily being the most memorable track.
I also noticed that the album title and some of the songtitles initially seem like they'd fit better for a groove metal or beatdown HC band. Then of course there's the band name, which seems far more appropriate for a death or grind band rather than a thrash one. Even the album cover, which I could see working for a variety of underground music styles, feels more like grind or HC art than thrash. I wonder if some of these things further contributed to the band being comparatively obscure.
Despite my minor criticisms, still a very nice find. Hopefully another copy in better condition will show up in the bargain bin!
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