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Phlebotomized – Immense, Intense, Suspense

The Dutch also had this weird band among their ranks, who guitarist Peter Verhoef joined following the dissolution of Ceremony, to record what would be Phlebotomized’s final and most psychedelic album, ‘Skycontact‘. A few years prior, they were still prone to radical experimentation with instrumentation and song-structure, but truer to their roots in Grindcore and Death Metal. Clearly raging with the impulse to try something new and unconventional, Phlebotomized came up with this bizarre work that renders At The Gates’ debut album masterpiece in the style of early My Dying Bride, with all the Classical allusions that such a fusion brings forth through its meandering compositions and violin accompaniment. Although the execution does get fairly uneasy in the wildly oscillating mood swings, there’s nothing token about Phlebotomized’s take on Doomdeath Metal in it’s more Gothic incarnation that followed from the success of emotional wrecks like those famous three signed to Peaceville!

There’s a greater sense of purpose in how the band manipulate feelings of melancholy around the complex narratives that relate the influence of dogmatism on susceptible minds, thirsting for something to quench the emptiness. Violin melodies lull the listener into a false and sarcastic sense of safety over guitars which carve out precipices before chaos, creating scenes of desperation, clinging to fairy-tale illusions that will never materialize, but comfort the inability to deal with the real world. Keyboards also assert themselves throughout the album, representing the mind-infiltrators of both Christianity and psychological therapists(!), with dominant themes that really influence the moments of beauty when they converge with guitars and violin to synchronise in sorrow and helplessness, such as in ‘Desecration of Alleged Christian History’. In contrast, a lot of this atmosphere is lost when extra-instrumentation is forced to accompany the more conventional Metal riffs, which is disappointingly in line with what makes later Doom bands like Lacrimas Profundere fail so badly. ‘Immense, Intense, Suspense’ pulls off its high musical aspirations with enough competence for such things to be overlooked. It’s not the kind of album that Death Metal connoisseurs will revisit too often, but has a trademarked, heavy Dutch resolve and a first-rate neoclassical acoustic song, ‘In Search of Tranquility’ that makes this at least a curious highlight from the past.

Death Metal Album of the Week: Ceremony – Tyranny From Above

Of all the European camps that dominated the early nineties, the Dutch were responsible for some of the most direct and brutal music of the time. Ceremony were no exception, possibly excelling the likes of Asphyx, Pestilence and Sinister in terms of their ability to suffocate the senses. For wealth of sheer down-tuned heaviness, the only full-length output by this band is one of the few old-school Death Metal albums from Europe that comes close to achieving the engulfing darkness of the aesthetically engaging ‘Effigy of the Forgotten‘ by Suffocation – others include Fleshcrawl’s subterranean classic, ‘Descend into the Absurd‘ – which must be what most people imagine when they’re made to think of Death Metal! And not unlike the heavyweight of NYDM, the real appeal of ‘Tyranny From Above’ lies in the melodic direction of the music, although it works quite differently. Rather than acting as a connecting device between a linear series of rhythmic progressions, the sharp outbursts of melody here are wrestled out of the striding and wildly pulsating guitarwork with riffs that have the logical direction of Sinister and the unpredictable, firearm quality of the Swedish Seance. These riffs and their placement are very erratically arranged, like a Hydra flailing around in the endless darkness of it’s severed vision, but regenerate with the higher-register shredding reminscent of Atrocity’s ‘Todessehnsucht‘, inverting the discordant nature of the heavier, blasting moments as they peak in energy. This musical struggle against the forces that are imposed on our wills to weaken us and blind us from reality is among the finest examples of Brutal Death Metal, in a sub-genre that’s long since been over-run by mindless American herds.

New Year’s Incantation

Incantation will be raiding the eastern-most shores of Europe this January. Fellow Ibex Moon heathens Divine Eve will also be hitting the dates in England, Spain and then onwards to Italy, no doubt unleashing heavy doses of the old-school, cryptic language from the upcoming ‘Vengeful and Obstinate’ EP. The pan-European conglomerate of Hate, Nerve and Noctem will provide further support throughout the tour, with local bands intervening. A diabolical start to the year for European residents who can’t resist the infernal sound of northern USDM.

13/01/2010 – The Central – Nottingham, UK
14/01/2010 – Rio’s – Leeds, UK
15/01/2010 – Bannermans – Edinburgh, UK
16/01/2010 – The Elektrowerkz – London, UK
17/01/2010 – Den Eglantier – Antwerp, Belgium
21/01/2010 – Mephisto – Barcelona, Spain
22/01/2010 – Santana 27 – Bilbao, Spain
23/01/2010 – Grind In The Veins Metal Fest 2010 – Vigo, Spain
24/01/2010 – Ritmo & Compas – Madrid, Spain
30/01/2010 – Siddharta - Prato/Florence, Italy
31/01/2010 – Pieffe Factory – Gorizia, Italy

This is the latest tour schedule as of the date of posting, including the changes of venue that were made to the British leg.

Goreaphobia – Mortal Repulsion

Goreaphobia is one of the great names from the old-school of American Death Metal that were unable to solidify their reputation with a full-length release, but they weren’t left totally obscured due to the infamous personnel of Death Metal warriors – largely of Incantation stock – who have contributed to this band’s line-up over the years. With ‘Mortal Repulsion’, Goreaphobia have finally crossed the Styx and, with the wisdom of old seers, address the nightmares that such a thanatopsical journey brings to life. Those familiar with these veteran’s earlier recordings, such as the barbaric ‘Morbidious Pathology’ demo, will notice that this album shows an highly controlled approach to Goreaphobia’s morbid style of art. This is a fair compromise for the lack of youthful energy, as the sound is an accumulation of a lot of technique that has been refined over the years by American Death and Black Metal bands, and guided by the same intelligence, also shows disdain for the cheap tricks employed by bands who should be performing nu-emo-metalcore in a circus somewhere.

The guitars have a noticeably sludgy quality not unlike Incantation, which lends itself well to the diversity of guitarwork on exhibition, while kept well anchored by the drumming, equally multi-dimensional in its awareness of primitivism within a fairly demanding instrumental framework. The sense of space conjured is often remarkable, such as the ambiential ‘Negative Screams’, which is like an inversion of Pestilence’s ‘Proliferous Souls’. Haunting melodies interact with rhythmical progressions in a manner not dissimilar to the older demos, but the flavour here is more like Immolation and their own inaugural breath of hellfire that was ‘Dawn of Possession’, and the subtle layering of secondary guitars and bass even recalls the likes of Demoncy. The vocal work of Gamble has a strange aura of older, more primal Black Metal such as N.M.E. or Hellhammer (whose presence is also felt during the down-tempo moments of the album that are laden with a Doomy sense of desolation) at times. ‘Mortal Repulsion’ is a great amalgamation of this unholy lineage of pure and nihilistic underground Metal, bringing to attention the fear of life inherent in the fear of death, and the dominion that can be held over such neuroses which fade within the depths of the abyss.

Correspondence of Tranquility – Interview with Disaffected

The early nineties was replete with Death Metal bands that are now legendary, contributing to the cult’s creative height, but largely from the now infamous concentration zones of northern Europe and across the Americas. This left several adjacent scenes with relatively little notoreity and condemned some first-rate albums to obscurity. Our review of Disaffected’s ‘Vast‘ touched upon one such example from Portugal, so we decided to uncover this legendary band even further by talking with their evil bassist, António Gião about the past, present and future of Disaffected and Portuguese Death Metal.

ObscuraHessian: As Disaffected are still unknown to many, despite the legendary status of ‘Vast’ as a pillar of Death Metal wisdom, could you give a brief history of the band and what led you to join?

Gião: Disaffected were formed in 1991 by drummer Joaquim Aires and Sergio Paulo (guitar/vocals), as a Death/Thrash metal band. Later adding Zakk (guitar) and Sergio Monteiro on bass, the band released ‘…After…’ demo in ’92, and later that same year we were included in ‘The Birth of a Tragedy‘ (MTM ’92), a vinyl compilation of Portuguese Metal bands with the song ‘Echoes Remain’. In 1993, the line-up changed; Zakk and Sergio Monteiro left the band and I joined the band, invited by former bassist. Later, vocalist Gonçalo Cunha and guest vocalist Nuno Loureiro (Exiled) joined the band and we performed a lot of shows with this line-up.

In 1994, keyboard player Fatima Geronimo and vocalist Jose Costa (Sacred Sin) joined the band and with this line-up our music had become more progressive and complex. In 1995 we got signed by Skyfall Records (Portugal) and released ‘Vast’ full-length album in October 1995. This album was recorded at Namouche Studios (Lisbon) and produced by Marsten Bailey. A videoclip for the song ‘Vast – The Long Tomorrow‘ was recorded to promote the album ‘Vast’, and was aired on MTV, VIVA, MCM and RTP (Portuguese Television) and we’ve also covered ‘Seasons in the Abyss‘ for the Slayer tribute album ‘Slatanic Slaughter II‘ (Black Sun Records ’96). In 1997 due to internal problems, we stop activity.

But in 2007, me and guitar player Sérgio Paulo, decided to reunite the band after 10 years of silence, and after a few meetings with the band members discussing a possible band reunion, the decision was “Let’s do it!!!”. A lot had passed with the band and the band members during these inactive years. Each had gone their own way in music and life. Due to the tragic accident of Sergio Paulo (guitarist) in 2004, all members got together again for the purpose of supporting a good friend. Sergio was lucky to survive a coma sleep of 2 weeks. His force of living had made him come back to us, and he had (literally) to restart his whole life, like being born again. He recovered most his abilities, and even his guitar mastery is back in 99%. A lot of things he had lost in his memory due to this accident, but he had never forgot DISAFFECTED music and his friends!

…And its coming back to life! Keyboard player Bianca and drummer O joined the band and the reunion happens! In 2008, the song ‘Vast – The Long Tomorrow’ of Disaffected’s debut album ‘Vast’ was included in the ‘Entulho Sonoro 5‘, a compilation CD of the April ’08 edition of the Portuguese underground magazine, ‘Underworld‘. Now we are structuring and putting the finishing touches on 10 songs that will be part of our next full length album, which will be recorded in Urban Insect Studios (Olival Basto, Lisbon) in May 2010 with producer Fernando Matias (F.E.V.E.R., Target35, Moonspell), for a late 2010 release.

ObscuraHessian: The Iberian peninsula is not very well-known around the world for its Metal. Was there a strong Death Metal scene in the early 90′s and how have things changed for this underground music cult in your country?

Gião: Portugal in the 90s had very good bands in death metal genre, but due to geographical location, away from the centre of Europe, away from the circuit of tours, ended up having a premature end. National labels betting little to promote domestic and internationally, and it was very difficult for bands to play outside the country. At the present, here, there’s a good movement, good Death Metal bands with great quality and with the technological evolution of media and the internet is easier to promote. There is more publicity and recognition on national and international levels…no such thing as the days of the ‘Vast’.

ObscuraHessian: So are any other good bands hidden from the rest of the world that we should know about?

Gião: I could list many good bands from Portugal, but wanted to leave a great name in Portuguese Death Metal scene of the 90s…Thormenthor!

ObscuraHessian: ‘Vast’ is one of those albums that moves away from the morbid and violent dimension of Death Metal, but unlike many other bands of the same generation, it remained as uncompromising and brutal in its exploration of deeper consciousness. Can you talk a little about the musical and philosophical influences of this album?

Gião: ‘Vast’, as the name implies has a very large extent on the level of composition and musical influences. All the musicians had the most varied musical influences and backgrounds, from Classical music to Jazz, through the dark and obscure, but always with the intention to give a personal touch and unique style to progressive Death Metal. We tried to invent the style Disaffected, and I think that we did. At the level of the lyrics, the theme was dreams, illusions, human condition, cosmos and man’s interaction with the universe.

ObscuraHessian: During the quieter, contemplative moments of the album, we hear a lot more of the bass. Is your background in Jazz? What other music influences and inspires you on a personal level?

Gião: Yes, I’ve a musical background in Jazz. I began playing bass guitar at age 16. I studied musical formation at Sinatra Music Conservatory in 1990 and during the years of ’93 and ’94, I studied electric bass at the Jazz School of Hot Clube Portugal. I have many musical influences from Metal to Jazz, through to Funk and Rock. I also have several musicians in a variety of musical aspects as a reference, but there is a Jazz bassist who definitely impressed and inspired me: Jaco Pastorius. Guitarist Sergio Paulo also has musical background of Jazz and is currently musical teacher. And the other band members also have musical formation knowledge.

ObscuraHessian: Could you give a round-up of your work in other bands? I’ve been trying to track down Exiled’s ‘Ascencion of Grace’ with no luck!

Gião: I’ve played with many artists and bands as a studio musician and as a performer too. At the present, I play bass guitar with Disaffected and Target35 (Progressive Rock Experimental). In the past, I played bass guitar with Papo Seco (Hardcore) and recorded a 4-track demo tape, produced by Luis Barros (Tarantula) at Rec’n'Roll Studios (Valadares, Porto) in March ’92, and later that same year the band changed name to Grito Suburbano before we split up. Since ’93 till ’94, I played bass guitar with Exiled (Death Metal) and recorded Exiled’s album ‘Ascencion of Grace’ (Slime Records ’94), produced by Zé Motor at Tcha Tcha Tcha Studios (Algés, Lisbon).

In 1994, I played bass guitar with a Jazz sextet featuring vocalist star Patrícia Fernandes, and we performed a show at Festa do Avante’94 (Seixal) in September of that same year. During the Summer ’97, I played bass guitar at Flood (Alternative Rock) as the support band of Santos & Pecadores Summer Tour ’97. In March ’02, in the aftermath of our Death Metal project Skinblade (1999-2002), me and drummer O decided to form a new band called Sybila, based on avant-garde style, and in December ’04, we entered Studio G22 (Feijó, Almada) with producer Paulo Vieira (Firstborn) to record the promotional song ‘Cycles’. The band split up in 2008 due to professional commitments of the musicians.

During the year of 2006, we at Target35 performed a lot of shows to promote our first promo CD, which was recorded in May ’06, produced by Makoto Yagyu (If Lucy Fell) at Black Sheep Studios (Mem Martins, Sintra). In the fall 2008, we at Target35 recorded 5 songs at Urban Insect Studios (Olival Basto, Lisbon) with producer Fernando Matias (F.E.V.E.R.). These 5 songs are included in our new EP ‘Post Rock Mortem’, self-released in May ’09. Briefly, this was my work as a musician in other projects as well as Disaffected over all these years.

ObscuraHessian: The great news you mentioned is that Disaffected will return to the studio and unleash new disharmonic soundwaves upon the world. What is the band trying to achieve with the upcoming release?

Gião: Musically, we intend to continue with the style that characterizes Disaffected, trying to explore new levels of music, sometimes melodic sometimes dissonant. In this new album the lyrical context consists in two parts. Part 1 with dark and obscure lyrics, showing the route of the band from the stop until the meeting, and then in Part 2 we will try to depict the rebirth of the band with lyrics more encouraging and positive. We’ll sign a new label contract too, but for now, we have nothing confirmed yet.

ObscuraHessian: No similar deal with Skyfall Records again, then? Hopefully, you’ll have a better distribution this time round.

Gião: No. The contract with Skyfall Records ended a few years ago and we currently have no label. But it is guaranteed that the label who launch our next album will have to give us guarantees a good distribution and promotion. After we sign a new deal and release the album, we can also confirm tours and other kind of promotions.

ObscuraHessian: Any other subliminal messages you’d like to convey?

Gião: Support Death Metal all over the world!

Disaffected will be returning to the studio in May 2010 to record their new album scheduled for an October release.

Death Metal Album of the Week: Asgard – To a Golden Age

Winter has officially launched its campaign of death in the lands of the Northern Hemisphere. We mark this celestial transition by digging up another forgotten classic from out of the snow and ice. An unusual Death Metal album from France that bears the aesthetic sensibilities of a more Nordic adventure, Asgard’s ‘To a Golden Age’ can be most succinctly described as ‘Viking Death Metal’. This was nothing new at the time of release in 1996; by then, Unleashed had already integrated Viking themes into their signature style of Swedish Death Metal. With Asgard, we have a more naturalistic approach to these themes. Somewhat inauthentic but nonetheless epic and folky guitar-work propels endless fleets of warships across the stormy seas in a dramatic clash of Metallica’s ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ‘Master of Puppets’ with the blasting, melodic savagery of ‘Blod Draum‘, including the Norwegian Black Metal elements that Molested work into their own sound. In this sense, the album is not unlike the more advanced Greek Black Metal bands such as Rotting Christ, if the Heavy Metal-inspired melodic progressions were superimposed onto a more updated and impulsive, Death Metal sense of composition. Due to the fairly flat production, there is an unbecoming lack of weight to the instrumentalism, but the epic scope of these songs and their competent arrangements still triumphantly channel relentless barbarism, brooding tension and reflective wisdom in compact odes to the times of battle when gods and men fought for the nine worlds.

Heavens Below & Heavens Above

As we now have ample space to look back over the year that has transpired, let us visit only two Black Metal albums released earlier in 2009 and in doing so, we might illuminate the difference in the spirit of these artists, though their influences and outward gaze follow a similar trajectory.

Blut Aus Nord – Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

With this album, Blut Aus Nord’s habit of jumping from one established school of Black Metal thought to another has been replaced by a slightly more focused exploration of the abstract ideas that Vindsval‘s tried to find an appropriate voice for since after the release of the crowd-pleasing ‘The Work Which Transforms God’. The continutations from that album and the following ‘Odinist’ lie in the same dissonant and synthesized riffs, but the template here is more Burzumic in the sense that songs specifically seem to mould themselves well to the approach of ‘My Journey to the Stars‘ from Count Grishnackh’s self-titled work. In addition, as there is a distinctly Eastern flavour to the metaphysics which Blut Aus Nord has arranged very eruditely over the course of the album, corresponding musical themes are ever-present.

As unusual as it is, in Black Metal music, to come across traces of an European longing for the cosmically affirmed existence mixed with a very Buddhistic negation of the unreal, these aren’t incompatible ideas and have been demonstrated in European art since Sanskrit and Pali literature first arrived in Germany and in the hands of Richard Wagner. However, there seems to be an unavoidable unsubtlelty that plights bands who are this radically overt in their application of Indian and Oriental themes, which even Blut Aus Nord’s mastery of ethereal sound effects hasn’t been able to disguise. Where this becomes present is in sync with the downfall of the music in general. The composition is a highlight reel of riffs that have some relevance to each other, but too often feel contrived and edited in the attempt to bring about some change in the dynamics of the music. This leaves the songs often rushing towards their conclusions in quite a generic manner, or going nowhere in the same manner of fellow French bands S.V.E.S.T. and Deathspell Omega. Riffs are then overlaid with leads or interspersed with patterns that are Eastern sounding, which does break the dip in interest, but only vaguely hints at where the artist wants to go and doesn’t actually take it there. The leads sound especially tacked on, possessing none of the integralism of a Sorcier Des Glaces on his ‘Snowland‘ masterpiece.

In the end, the psychedelic and cosmic sounds of ‘Memoria Vetusta II’ are well-intentioned but it comes across more like a New Age soundtrack than possessing the profundity of a Steve Roach album, for example. It is, though, Blut Aus Nord’s best work to date and does actually give hope of an interesting follow-up if the band gets totally lost in these conversations with the universe and not totally bored with it, needing to change ‘direction’ again.

Midnight Odyssey – Firmament

It’s almost impossible for some Black Metal bands, breathing only the contaminated air of darkness, to escape the grasp of Burzum’s music. Midnight Odyssey’s ‘Firmament’ is another highly Burzum-influenced album, but this one from down under refers to the Count’s most accessible work so far, ‘Filosofem’ with some hints of the earlier albums. This amounts to revisiting those thick but purposeful, contra-shoegazing, melodic guitars, distorted screams and the rolling, equitarean kick-drumming.

Countless bands have tried and failed to capture the Romantic visions that first gave rise to this style, because it’s technically quite easy to execute, but such simplicity doesn’t demand technical ability (mimicry) nor even a thorough understanding of such visions (erudition) but possessing the sight itself, so that the music can live and emanate as simply as we breathe. ‘Firmament’ fills this role excellently as a series of interactive sonic portraits that are laden with a sense of ferality amidst the cosmos. Epic melodies ring sharply like the emotions of a soul that finds beauty and the true conditions of life in the unknown, wild and organic frontier, far away from the constructions of our artificially-induced desires. These emotions become enmeshed in the depths of the night and senses heighten to an active sense of awareness, re-uniting struggle and survival with a cosmic context, and in a manner highly reminiscent of ‘Jesus’ Tod‘ with an increasing sense of immersion created by a focus on guitar ambience rather than phrasal (though continual), percussive or rhythmic elements. Infact, even though the drums are very well applied to create an engaging sense of pace, it would be interesting to hear the entire album sans percussion. Keyboards are applied both in the manner of Burzum’s reflective ambient pieces, and as a subtle, ethereal layer over the woods-shrouded Black Metal music, giving the album its reflective and almost panentheistic (like the American Transcendentalists) dimension.

A great debut album and although its form is very familiar and pretty easy to grasp, this is one which will have the biggest impact on those that have two feet grounded in the mud and grass, covered in bruises and wounds from bushes and thickets, but still with their eyes on the stars beyond the heighest leaves, breathing deeply in the all-embracing darkness of the night.

Death Metal Album of the Week: Kataklysm – Sorcery

Just like another Canadian Death Metal band by the name of Cryptopsy, it’s hard to imagine that there was a time when Kataklysm were once an unstoppable juggernaut of hyper-blasting, cthonic cacophony. ‘Sorcery’ is a continuation of the ideas set forth in their ‘The Mystical Gate of Reincarnation’ EP, refining the sense of melody that formed the skeleton of those wildly fluctuating epics of metempsychotic insanity. These signature phrases aren’t subject to as much of a riff salad, as this time Kataklysm have a tighter playing style in general. Majestic, evil riffs collide with conventional but brutally executed Death Metal rhythms that are churned up from the bowels of the Earth and shredded apart with a neoclassical flair for melody, truly harnessing the tension it creates. Showing the compositional prowess that sets this earlier offering apart from their later albums, Kataklysm seamlessly combine these patterns of malignant sound into evolved riffs of totality, like consciousness opening up to nihilistic visions of simultaneous creation, destruction and rebirth. The multi-layered, textural assault of Sylvain Houde’s vocal work is awesome not just in terms of how frighteningly bestial it sounds but also the intelligent sense of musicianship. The incantations are subjected to the exact dynamics of the compositions, rather than the typical rhythmic awareness of Death Metal vocals. Duhamel’s drumming is full of character and complexity is acheived in the balance of restraint and the height of rapid-fire blasting. Their first full-length album, this is one worth digging past most of their later discography to uncover. The follow-up, ‘Temple of Knowledge’ is worthy but would be the last to include the vital contribution of Monseuir Houde, signalling the degeneration of this former mystical entity.

Death Metal Album of the Week: Disaffected – Vast

Time this week to awaken from our slumber of twisted and broken dreams and reach deep into the wellspring of clarity, grasping the inner presence of the void. To this end, ‘Vast’ is a multi-dimensional assault on the senses, distorting the categories which facilitate our somnambulistic perceptions. In a frenzy of piercingly atonal guitarwork with correspondingly monotonous but aggressive and disjointed rhythms, this album clearly cites ‘Spheres’ by Pestilence as a major influence, with more of the Jazz than Modernist (and other eclectic styles’) sensibilities carrying through into Disaffected’s own sound. This assimilation plays a role in connecting the guitars that untangle nerves from their confused ganglion formations to more free and expansive glimpses of moodlessness. The interplay between these contradicting states is what comprises the essence of Disaffected’s only full-length release, but in the tradition of the most epic narratives, we see this struggle take shape in different ways, across the expanse towards self-realisation. At times bewilderingly warped riffs that evoke the worst nightmares of both Gorguts and early Atrocity tear through synth-based clouds of an ethereal distance. Interludes that recall older times match toneless words spoken with reference to ancient archetypes once revered for their mystical vision, before the battering from the sensory world resumes. Some may find this album to be relentlessly sterile and mechanical. It’s in this way that ‘Vast’ demands the listener to acquiesce with the almighty Nihil and wrest from it some tranquility beyond the forces that assail our minds. Unfortunately this album was relegated to near-obscurity, but should not be forgotten in a time when such direct communication is fairly sparse. If it does, we’re all going the same fucking way.

Nuclear Assault – Game Over

Taking the NWOBHM informed song structures that defined speed metal and the muted, percussive power chord led riffs that were the pattern language of the speed metal underground, Nuclear Assault incorporated elements of crossover punk and thrash into their music. Guitars have a sharp, grating and garage like-tone amidst the clear sounding and well thought out bass guitar lines of Dan Lilker. John Connelly’s punk falsetto is excellent, a gravelly yet apocalyptic wail that amuses yet inspires.

Lyrically this takes the satire one could associate with crossover acts such as Adrenalin O.D. and Fearless Iranians From Hell, and rather than solely attempting to amuse us, makes for relevant social commentaries that reflected and mocked the issues that were heavy on the American subconscious, amongst mildly apocalyptic themes that still were embedded in the Cold War’s late phase, warning of post-nuclear desolation.

Short, humoured and abrupt songs such as ‘Hang The Pope’ and ‘My America’ resemble a more aggressive take on the thrashings of DRI and Millions Of Dead Cops, whilst ‘Sin’, ‘Stranded In Hell’ and ‘Brain Death’ are richly melodic and have a brilliant sense of irony, and almost reminds of Iron Maiden stripping themselves of romanticism in the wake of an uncertain, primitive future.

This is commonly also available with the follow-up EP ‘The Plague’ on CD format and compliments the excellence of their full-length. In addition, this is a timeless and influential metal album that summed up the hopes, dreams and fears of 1980’s America in less than an hours worth of material, and is absolutely essential.