Written by Kostas Vaxevanos May 2022
10 dynamites that were not appreciated back in the time but locked Thrash metal to haunt the 90s decade. Many have tried since then but never managed to revive it…
- ATROPHY – Violent By Nature (ROADRACER) 1990
The quality of this album is colossal, produced by Bill Metoyer from Metal Blade. Technical with a great rhythm section in both the slow and fast parts. Every hit on the drum kit is a strike on your chest. The phenomena of social pathogenesis under the lyrical microscope as the 4 year old Richie on the cover/innersleeve is a real person, son of Gloria then manager of the group and symbolizes the youth that the violence of games and TV has mutated. B.C. Rich and Charvel’s riffs alternate like a crushing machine as the voice emits fiery flames that burn down the back of your neck like a threat. “Too late to change” is a seminar piece. It starts off with clean vocals, 12 string guitars in the intro, unfolds with solos and in the chorus the pompous tom with the Too…Late…To…Change vocals stuck in your mind like a tattoo forever…
2. SLAYER – Divine Intervention (DEF JAM) 1994
Metal is starting to take a heavy hit and many branches of Metal are disintegrating. Fourteen years old at the time I have just become addicted to the riffs of “Cryonics”, “Face the slayer”. I buy the vinyl as soon as it comes out. The shock is real. I still remember the sickening back cover with newspaper clippings of homicides and slit veins spelling Slayer on the inside cover. Araya’s performance is memorable not only for the unimaginable speeds on Dittohead, the desperation on the title track but the schizophrenic theatricality on “i need a friend, please be my companion”… 213 is a reference song in Hanneman’s serial killer composition as he and Kerry King on a big moment of their creation. “Sex Murder Art”, “Circle of Beliefs”, “Fiction or Reality” original song title… treachery… misery… violence… insanity…. and i think i need a doctor… But someone else is stealing the show. Who would have thought that Slayer without Father Lombardo would have found an octopus who recorded incredible drums and played his socks off. Mr. Paul Bostaph I bow down…
3. KREATOR – Cause For Conflict (GUN) 1995
Broadcast on METAL HAMMER Greece radio… “Let’s go listen to what KREATOR says is a new track called… “Lost”….. trrrrrrrrrr… That’s it! The next day I went and bought Pleasure to kill and the album when it came out of course. A new love was created. Yes Ventor is the legend that will always be remembered as well as his vocals on the first 3 albums HOWEVER… Joe Cangelosi aka Animalosi Membranophagus played incredible stuff. He elevated a band that experimented on the decent for me Renewal, but needed to raise the flag again at least one last time. CFC has anger, grit, speeds, fits perfectly into the spirit of the times and of course with Frank Blackfire you can’t fail. Fresh, full of diverse chops and I don’t know if I’ve said it before… Joe Cangelosi … everywhere… intelligent, fast, virtuoso, fills everything… These were the real Kreator… Petrozza against everyone and everything. 50 minutes of sophisticated Thrash rooted in the 80s… Respect
4. DEATHROW – Life Beyond (WEST VIRGINIA) 1992
Perhaps the most underrated Thrash superband. Incredibly talented! After the third album where they changed their second guitar they showed the progressive metal world what technical metal 100 tone means. The absolute rape of the six-string. This band manages to get you drunk through ideas that cut and high speeds that break your jaw. This album here is more heavy than its predecessor Deception Ignored and you will find beautiful melodies “Suicide Arena”, “Hidden Truth” and mid tempo parts like in “Raging Steel”. The beloved speed power vocals are more gritty and the power is overflowing. In no way do they backtrack since the genius parts are present. “Homosaphiens Superior”… oh my god what is going on in this track…they always play with your focus and concentration, if you get a little distracted you think you are in another track. Their compositions are like mathematical equations only with reverent study you will understand that we are talking about scientific music machinations. Of course bands like them and DBC were not appreciated but they left us with 4 diamonds of German metal technology. Released with two covers like the debut Riders of Doom…
5. SOLSTICE – Solstice (STEAMHAMMER) 1992
With two members of Retribution-era Malevolent Creation, Monstrosity bassist, Repka on the artwork and guest appearances from James Murphy to Scott Burns on the cover of “Suck My Dick” – Carnivore really what did you expect? 33 minutes of endless orgasm, Marquez is incomprehensible, Barrett brings out all his hardcore repressions and reveals to us the hidden talent of his vocal abilities. Mark Van Erp perhaps a much underrated bassist in the business and Dennis Munoz or Dennis “Murphy” for his guitar skills round out a top notch all star line up that sticks you with 9 tracks on the ring ropes and finishes you off…. Enough said!
6. SADUS – Elements of Anger (MASKOT) 1997
The last of the Mohicans. The last album with guts and not sweet-sounding pseudo-bubbled commercial shit. When there was basically no more Thrash, remember what Kreator, Anthrax, Metallica were releasing and before the retro breakout Sadus kept it alive. Di Giorgio paints with themes outside of riffs and unleashes all his talent but also opens up musical horizons for those who want to listen. The first album may have teeth chipping from the beats but Sadus had shown early on signs of good technical training. So after “Swallowed In Black” and “Vision Of Misery” we come to their most complete album for me. It’s just as enjoyable to listen to standing up banging but also lounging in your armchair. With very heavy guitars that shoot fireworks and the familiar vocals of disgust and screaming. It balances between speed and uplifting rhythms (Aggression, Words of War, Fuel) and sometimes slower passages with synths shaking musical chromosomes from the speaker membranes (Crutch, Safety In Numbers, Mask). Does it have progressive elements? Yes! Does it have its roots in the 80s? Of course! So it’s worthy of mention and any band that plays the same stuff at 30s as they did at 20s has probably thrown ten years down the drain. Not in the case of Sadus…
7. RAZOR – Open Hostility (FRINGE PRODUCT) 1991
Canada is famous for its very talented technical bands. But apart from Death Metal in the 80’s a whole movement of speed Thrash was created with well-known bands like Exciter, Annihilator, Infernal Majesty but also less known bands like Sacrifice, Lethal Presence, Armoros. Among them Razor appeared and we met them in Speed Kills II with “Evil Invaders”. The intentions were clear from the beginning. Street mentality, ferocity in the guitars, adrenaline at its highest and Motorhead filth. With second vocalist Bob Reid the style became even more hardcore punk and Razor managed to create a sound that many bands today ape. On “Open Hostility” they may have used a drum program due to an accident but that doesn’t take away from the energy, catchy parts and frantic riff carnage. In the midst of it all, add in the lyrics against police brutality, the system and all things corrupt. Canadians have their own generation of chaos too…
8. DESTRUCTION – Cracked Brain (Steamhammer) 1990
I can already hear some people complaining. Well let me clarify that I do NOT consider this album to be Destruction. Yes it is 3 of the 4 members of “Release from Agony”. Yes the thirsty singer of the Swiss POLTERGEIST who has taken over the vocals did auxiliary vocals on the previous album but the band here sonically is something else. Not only because Schmier’s poisonous vocals are missing but much more the style of the album is different. The original Destruction write indigestible riffs and their tempos are uncomfortably pretentious. Not to mention the dry sound in the guitars and melodies pulled from centuries of German classical culture. So sonically we have an album that is a dynamite of American Bay Area school or even Canadian. Does that bother us? Not at all! I barely personally enjoy it and some tracks like “Rippin You Off Blind”, “Cracked Brain”, “No Need to Justify” and even the cover of “My Sherona” are highly entertaining, easy to remember and I love them. So if you take off the logo you have a loud, more straightforward, gritty, classic speed thrash demon with a bit of Annihilator flavor that in very few moments reminds us of the band that shined with two historic EPs , three albums and the best Live Metal album… We still like it!
9. DARK ANGEL – Time Does Not Heal (COMBAT) 1991
The average length of a typical radio song is three minutes. On an album of about 70 minutes and durations of 6-9 minutes you understand that they wanted the task to be difficult. Already in the late 80’s many bands were testing their potential mainly on a technical level so many gems came out mostly raw. Maybe “We Have Arrived” is my favourite because of the feeling and “Darkness Descends” is the highlight of their career but here you enjoy creations of a different level. I’ll take you to the melodies of “Art of Contrition”, the atomic clock metering of “A subtle induction”, the trills of “New Priesthood”, the storming “An Ancient Inherited Shame”. If you’re blown away by the music and the plethora of ideas, you won’t even know the time has passed. The tracks are as long as trolley trains and only invite you to climb aboard if you feel like travelling…as for the title yes time does not heal. Time is fourth dimension and it is an illusion. Pain is trapped charged in the triangle we are body-mind-soul like three dimensional beings we are…have a good psychotherapy listening to it…
10. DEVASTATION – Idolatry (COMBAT) 1991
“Idolatry” is one of the top Thrash albums of all time and in the best trio with “Rust In Peace” and “Coma of Souls”. Rodney Dunsmore makes a soulful statement on the microphone with a Razor-style dirt tone and Paul DiAnno style deadbeat. The drums hit you like a cop baton at a protest. Like his predecessor the speedy Louie Carrisalez… Dave Lozano is simply delightful and the membranes of my ears are paralyzed upon hearing him. But the most important chapter in this book with the symbols on the coverart is the guitars gentlemen. There is no tighter, solid duo that sounds so fucking in sync… Two riff machines , blades that slice you up, metals that burn and leads that melt your brain. Hypertension on par with an MMA fight, Formula 1 race with Schumacher chasing Senna. Idolatry will flatten you… you’ll eat dirt off the ground… just like that. Recorded in the golden age of Morrisound it will also remind you a bit of Sepultura, Demolition Hammer but it also has a mystery as a consequence of the lyrics and some keyboard parts in Souls of sacrifice and the intro. Put on Deliver The Suffering and see you next time…
Copyright © 2013 - 2023. Repulsive Echo - All Rights Reserved.