Living Death - Metal Revolution (1985)

Not only were we treated with a Speed Revolution courtesy of 1985 and Vectom, but also a Metal Revolution thanks to Living Death. Thankfully, this is the superior revolution, and a step up for the German band as they matured into a more aggressive sound, still ripe with the speed and traditional metal of their roots, but harder hitting as thrash truly entered their borders. If you were one of the few exposed to their Watch Out! EP, you knew what to expect. Thorsten Bergmann has improved dramatically, no longer sounding so loose, foolish and disheveled, but rather a sonic, screaming weapon not unlike the master Udo Dirkschneider of Accept. The band also acquired a new drummer in Andreas Oberhoff, who would spend only a few years with the band, but provides a more solid foundation.

Metal Revolution is one of those records that begins mediocre at best, with "Killing Machine", in which the showcase is really Bergmann's more 'restrained' wailing, and then "Grippin' a Heart" doesn't quite build momentum, a savage but average speed metal piece with a half decent chorus. "Rulers Must Come" rocks a little harder, mid paced power/thrash metal with howling vocals, but it's not until the slower "Screaming from a Chamber" that the album really begins to shape up, with Bergmann shifting between a lower, growling register and his typical wails, and the band developing a deep, constant groove that casts an effective, dirty and mean atmosphere not unlike early Rage. The snappy, speedy "Shadow of the Dawn" and "Panic and Hysteria" are both quite good, and one wonders why these weren't use as the lead-in tracks. "Road of Destiny" has a greater sense of melody, and while the finale "Deep in Hell" isn't great, it at least returns to the street metal sound of "Watch Out!" or "Screaming from a Chamber".

While I enjoyed Vengeance from Hell despite its glaring flaws, Metal Revolution is simply better on all accounts, another step on the ladder of evolution that would characterize this band's entire career. It's almost, but not quite as entertaining as Protected from Reality, which is a more serious thrash effort with tweaked songwriting. The mix sounds good. The vocalist (finally) sounds good. And the riffs follow suit. It might have put a better foot forward, as the first few tracks seem to be the weakest of the lot, but if you can survive that 8 minutes you'll be in for a stronger forecast, and truthfully one of the best they've released. The band's saber toothed undead Viking mascot beckons you from the cover like an Uncle Sam recruitment drive, but this time out the music is possibly worth enlisting to hear.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (climb into your leather)

Destruction - Infernal Overkill (1985)

Sentence of Death was a massive initial statement for any band to make, and thus Destruction faced the difficulty of following it up with something more substantial, a full-length worthy of their name. Infernal Overkill might not have been the mind blowing effort many would be expecting, but it certainly solidified Schmier's trio as one of the best in European thrash, easily placing the band on the same tier of talent as American luminaries like Metallica, Slayer, Overkill, and Anthrax. Above all, the record ushered in the much needed improvements in production over Sentence of Death, without losing the primal, sneering thrust and riffing that characterized the EP. The album isn't exactly stacked to the gills with the Germans' best material, but there are a few memorable numbers which served as an eerie presage to the future.

By this I'm referring to tracks like "Antichrist", which naturally foreshadows the impeccable masterwork of both the band's 'comeback' phase and their entire career, The Antichrist. Also "Thrash Attack", a title worth strangling almost any retro douchebag for these days, but fairly proud and novel for its day, especially being that it's only an instrumental with some savage, effective riffing that might have served just as well with vocals. You've got a "Tormentor" here, no relation really to the band or song (Kreator), not one of the better tracks, but level. No, the spotlight here must shine about "Bestial Invasion", with its manic, fluid riffing that fully delivers on the promise of Sentence of Death material ala "Mad Butcher"; or the opener "Invincible Force", for its incredible if distant opening shriek and methodical mayhem. A few of the tracks do miss their mark, like the 7:39 closer "Black Death", which feels a little too bloated for its own good, about 50% great riffs and 50% fodder; and the same ratio would apply to the shorter track "The Ritual".

The production is superior to the EP, with all the instruments drawn out more brightly in the Horst Muller mix, but as a result, it does lack for some of the insane carrion grasping appeal of Sentence. This is more of a professional, solid sounding effort, but I honestly would have hoped for something more vicious, something that would benefit more from Schmier's pinched shrieks and nasal razor diatribes. As it stands, he sounds on fire for about half of his lines, and the rest settle into an almost subdued mediocrity. But the triple 'S' musicianship of Sifringer, Schirmer and Sandmann is undeniable, and Infernal Overkill drips with that same clinical menace that would later have its temperature dropped for the emotional meat lockers of a Release from Agony or a Cracked Brain. I'd be comfortable calling this a 'great' full-length debut, but not entirely memorable, and marginally less impressive than Obsessed by Cruelty or Endless Pain, by their fellow spearheads Sodom and Kreator.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (you better pray to the new lord)

http://www.destruction.de/

Svartsyn - Wrath Upon the Earth (2011)

Aside from the year 2000 sophomore ...His Majesty, the Swedish Svartsyn's previous efforts have left little impression upon me, but it's nevertheless impressive that prime mover Ornias has kept the project alive for nearly two decades. Wrath Upon the Earth is the sixth full-length player, both more focused and more wretched than previous works such as Timeless Reign and Destruction of Man, and though I'm not sure it will be the one to reel me back into his gone graces, it's an interesting black metal record with some possible legs to it, due to the means through which it manages various elements, surging its raw and negative emotions with adequate pessimism and propulsion.

A ritual, almost tribal and grim intro descends into the "Wrath of Leviathan", a track which thrives off storming drums and banks of desperate, shining chords, but what is most noticeable here is how Ornias uses the vocals. These are not your standard black rasping, but instead create a deeper, death metal effect that is not unlike a Martin van Drunen, only more dense and garbled. It's actually an effective technique here, especially when it is balanced off against the backing synthesizers and writhing, melodic guitar passages. It also sets most of the tone for the remainder of the record. "My Mountain" and "Deathsworned" sound like natural side corridors, which at most will experiment with their percussion (lot of drum fills here) and rampant slews of dire sounding chord progressions. Turbulent, earthen and effective, but unfortunately once you've explored beyond the midpoint of the album, not a lot else happens, and you feel like you're listening to the same tempo shifts, even if the individual notations vary.

That being said, Wrath Upon the Earth is a balanced enough experience to take in a few tracks per listening, and the cavernous enormity of its production is comparable with a lot of the death metal nostalgia currently in favor, while maintaining the blitzkrieg momentum of the harder Norse and Swedish black metal practitioners. The vocals go a long way towards making the material stand out, even if the quality of the guitar lines does vary in the memory. Though I enjoyed ...His Majesty quite a bit when I first heard it, and that used only a few of the more grunted vocals, I'll admit that Ornias has mutated his project into something more interesting, a soil churning nightmare that, while flawed, can still create tremors throughout a fragile sanity.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/svartsynband

Vectom - Speed Revolution (1985)

When the cover of your debut album consists of three inverse-KKK looking evil dudes with pointy black hoods, I feel a justification in expecting a lot, but a lot is not what Vectom deliver with their Speed Revolution, which might be more appropriately titled Speedbump Satan Revolution. By 1985 standards, surely the trails they blaze here would have felt more novel than today, but the sad fact is that this record doesn't hold up whatsoever. The riffs are extremely blase even by 80s standards, with fast rushing chords that do little else than drive the scruffy vocals of Christian Bucher, which are strangely enough the best thing going for this.

One thing I found pretty strange about Speed Revolution is the band's fascination with 'Satan' in just about the most generic means ever. They use his name in as many lyrics they can muster, so the album feels like some sort implausible Paradise Lost of thrash and speed metal. I suppose the three occultists with glowing eyes on the cover should have tipped me off, and I realize that the topic is quite common in extreme metal, but with Vectom, it feels a little forced. These guys have little to do with the devil, clearly, so when they're spouting out songs like "In Nomine Satanas" or "Satan's Colours", I just wasn't convinced. This isn't Slayer, closer to early Sodom in tone, but while the theme sufficed for Angelripper and his team, it feels artificial here. Fabricated. Nonetheless, the lyrics actually provide for some rather unintentional moments of humor on the album, and yeah, fight for Satan and all that.

When it comes to the actual riffing, I am most reminded of Tankard's Zombie Attack, though Vectom had the drop on that album. The two bands have the same fast, frolicking sense of fun in the compositions. I could very easily imagine Gerre singing over "Damned Love", "Open the Coffin", or "Too Fast for Hell", only Bucher does fine with it, his choppy accent and aggressive throat almost always the focus, as sloppy as they oft become. A few tunes like "Black Viper" and "Day of Execution" are more reminiscent of Destruction, but it's pretty much endlessly fast, with even the few slower riffs picking up to the same traipsing pace. The individual quality of the guitars is consistent, with Horst Gotz and Stefan Kroll occasionally pelting out brief flurries of leads ("Satan's Colours" has a decent, extended solo), but ultimately the construction just isn't there. No epic breakdowns or effective escalations into the chorus segment are found anywhere; it all just rambles along, with no surprises and no inspiring structures to speak of.

Certainly, Speed Revolution gives you that 'authentic' feeling found only through Germany in the 80s, but nostalgia is just not enough here to push it over the edge. No impetus whatsoever to ever listen to this over an Endless Pain, Zombie Attack or Obsessed by Cruelty, and totally no reason to pay attention when you had classics like Hell Awaits or Ride the Lightning coming out overseas. The cover image is pretty cool, the vocals sound good and abusive, but it all feels incredibly similar to an aircraft, all fueled up, which never leaves the runway. Nothing offensive or awful about it, but you're not going to pay to fly this baby off to thrash utopia when there were far better rides available.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10] (you never see the light)

http://www.myspace.com/vectomband

Living Death - Watch Out EP (1985)

Thrash metal as a whole has been plagued with useless EPs and singles much like any other genre, and Living Death's follow-up to their Vengeance from Hell debut largely falls under this category. Well, to be exact, Watch Out was not entirely useless at the time of its original release, coming out on a separate label (Earthshaker), and featured one track not found on the debut, and superior re-recordings of several other tracks. But in retrospect, some re-issues of Vengeance from Hell actually contain "Watch Out", so it might be more prudent to acquire one of these and acclimate yourself to the whole shebang, unless you're the collector type, equating reissues to rattlesnakes and entirely uninterested in anything but the original product.

"Watch Out" itself is a true terror of a track, bombastic and slicing German thrash/speed, and you'll notice immediately that Thorsten has improved his lot as a vocalist, with a grinding, sharp tone not unlike the legendary Udo Dirkschneider of Accept. In fact, Accept-gone-thrash is all too adequate a description for the track, and if such a proposition seems enticing, then by all means you will enjoy this track. The other pieces here are "You and Me", "Nightlight", and "Heavy Metal Hurricane", all culled from the debut with a slightly fresh coat of paint. I almost wish the entirety of Vengeance from Hell had just been re-recorded, with Bergmann toning down his antics, because it would be a severe lift in quality, but you'll just have to settle for this and rest assured that the full-length sophomore Metal Revolution takes its queues from the notion.

If you can actually find this, then maybe it's worth your while, especially if you're a huge fan of mid-80s German power, speed and thrash metal. Chances are you'll have to settle for a download, or just pick up one of the Vengeance from Hell re-issues that include the title track. Otherwise, you're getting a pretty 'hot' picture of the band in all their bullet strung glory, and a whiff of nostalgic dust. From here out, in 1985, Living Death will make several improvements, resulting in the two best albums of their career, so consider this the benchmark.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10] (grab yourself and save you)

Iron Angel - Hellish Crossfire (1985)

Though the album had been licensed and released in North America, Hellish Crossfire was one I had a hard time tracking down when I was a youth and getting heavily into the German thrash sound. The best I could do was a tape trading with some of their demos on a blank, but I finally got my hands on the Iron Angel debut a few years after its release, when I was in high school, and needless to say I was very impressed. I had seen the band's name mentioned in a number of articles, interviews, thanks lists, and so forth, and figured them to be some lost messiah of the genre, and while they're not deserving of quite that level of praise, this was a damn fine debut which occupied a curious niche between the more straight up power and speed metal sounds of Avenger (pre-Rage), Running Wild, Accept and Grave Digger, and the more aggressive thrashing pioneers Metallica, Artillery and Destruction.

Sound excellent? Well, in execution, it is. "The Metallian" has long been the star of this debut, and the band's career, and you won't get much of an argument from me. The blazing, thick rhythm guitars and the echoing, pinched tone of Dirk Schröder's vocals as he sails into the predictable but unforgettable chorus are impressive, and that riff that comes in directly after the chorus? Wonderful. But that's not the only gem here, and tracks like "Sinner 666", "Hunter in Chains", and "Legions of Evil" all remind me so much of what I loved about early Rage, Grave Digger and Running Wild, that impulsive steel rocking tone dowsed in reverb, sharp hooks digging their way well beneath your skin as they strike veins of blood and silver. "Wife of the Devil", "Heavy Metal Soldier" and "The Church of Lost Souls" all spit forth ruthless German speed and Schröder's delightful, playful torment shifting between nasal mid range to higher, manic shrieking. A few tunes like "Nightmare" do get left behind in the dust, but as a whole, there's a good 35 minutes here of razor bliss.

Hellish Crossfire would unfortunately not share the same fate as Destruction, Rage, Kreator or Sodom, and after one more full-length, which adopted a heavier use of the non-thrash elements, the band would fold, only to reappear through compilations and a brief reunion in the 21st century. It's a shame, because this debut is easily the measure of most German bands' early works, and the potential was through the roof here. I've heard delusional ranting that Dirk's vocals are an obstacle to appreciating the band, but I'm heavily inclined to disagree. Unlike the early Living Death albums (Thorsten Bergmann presiding), Schröder uses his eccentricity as a weapon, a vorpal sword that cuts straight through the riffing to your memory, and I've never once felt annoyed by him. Iron Angel isn't perfect, but if you're a fan of any of the prototypical German thrash or power metal (Helloween, Scanner, Rage), you owe it to yourself to invest in one of the undisputed mid-80s speed metal sleeper hits.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (in the rush of power)

http://www.iron-angel.com/

Kreator - Endless Pain (1985)

Mille Petrozza and company might not have been the first to the well, but their debut as Kreator would arrive soon enough to join the rank and file of Sodom and Destruction among the earlier, major German thrash releases (post-demo stage). Formed a few years prior as Tormentor, with the members in their teens, the band had been jamming on covers, performing a few odd gigs, and releasing a few tapes, one of which caught the ear of Noise Records guru Karl Walterbach, who promptly signed them and asked them to change their name (legal reasons). Kreator had been born, Endless Pain was produced, and though it might not hold a candle to much of the band's 1986-1990 catalog, it's still quite impressive considering the age of the roster and the crude crunch of the writing.

From a technical standpoint, I might place this somewhere between In the Sign of Evil and Sentence of Death in both songwriting quality and musicianship. It's not quite so blistering and bedazzling as Destruction's EP, but a little more involved than the punkish hymns of Angel Ripper. The rather unique, expressive architecture of Mille's chord selection was already in place, even though it wasn't nearly as refined as Pleasure to Kill or Terrible Certainty, and his harsh, barking vocals weren't unlike Angel Ripper's in that they'd later become a major influence upon the emergent black metal scene. Indeed, Sodom and Kreator are very often considered proponents of the 'first wave' of that genre, and that's a distinction I certainly won't argue with here. However, aside from the intro riff to "Total Death" sounding a little like "Mad Butcher", and carrying a similar leather & bullet belts image to Destruction, there was something fresh, bludgeoning and unique about this young band that foreshadowed their ascent.

The vocals are an immediate highlight of the title track, a sadistic glaze over its rippling, busy guitars and the steady crashing of Ventor's drums. Rob Fioretti's bass might not have been a major factor here, but the thick pulse would at least offer some concrete support to the chords. The construction of the notes was easily on a level plane with what was coming out of California, even if the band were not writing hits of Kill 'Em All or Show No Mercy caliber. In particular, I'd call out "Tormentor" and the epic "Flag of Hate" as the real hits here, the former hailing from their demo days under their previous moniker, the latter good enough to get its own EP release, with tearing, radioactive guitars and a killer bridge hook. However, there are other pleasures here like the brute "Bone Breaker", with its hilariously blunt chorus verse, or the cutting velocity of "Son of Evil" in which Mille warps his vocals into a higher, screaming velocity not unlike old Slayer or Whiplash.

A few tunes don't exactly rise to the occasion, like "Cry War" or "Storm of the Beast" (with a title like that, I wanted it to be better), but there are no real hangups even on a complete listen one quarter century post-release. It's superior to In the Sign of Evil, as there's simply more to hear and the guitar patterns feel more bloodied and aggressive, but not quite a match for the riffs of Sentence of Death. However, I do like the production here more than either of those EPs. Even before the touching up in re-releases, it sounded fresh and as if the band were due a successful future. As it turns out, fate would deliver countless tours and further label deals, but as the time, Mr. Petrozza and his stalwarts were thrilled just to produce an album in their teens, and that enthusiasm and vibrancy is omnipresent in this recording.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (final death is the price)

http://www.kreator-terrorzone.de/

Crimson Fire - Metal Is Back (2010)

You don't say?

I'm going to give Crimson Fire the benefit of the doubt and believe that the title to their debut album was meant to refer to their chosen style of traditional heavy/power metal. The genre has, in fact, seen a rather large upsurge in popularity of late, riding on the shoulders of bands like White Wizzard who do a fair job of emulating better bands that had existed in decades prior, which their fans seem to largely have missed...despite the relative ease of accessing just about any audio material ever pressed to the medium. Nonetheless, when compiled with the band's cheesy, 'boobs out' artwork and relative lack of anything unique or impressive in their songwriting, it's hard to view the unfortunate choice as anything but tasteless.

Crimson Fire are yet another in a vast field of musicians who possess all of the building blocks required for successful melodic power metal, but don't seem ready yet to apply them into the effective song craft of their influences. Firewind this is not, despite the similar handle, but a rather standardized crop of melodic anthems that neither impress nor offend the sensibilities. In particular, I'd single out the vocalist Johnny B. for having a clear set of pipes that remind me of everything from Riot to all manner of NWOBHM bands. They don't quite emulate any of the contemporaries, and as a result, there's some potential here, though his escalating choruses are rarely memorable. Also, the guitars are adequate, evoking some mystique in the leads, but they're just lacking an original enough set of riffs to stand out from so many others in Europe. Tracks like "Crimson Fire", "Let There Be War" (nice shriek near the end) and "Midnight Strike" are probably the most effective, but even these just don't warrant a repeat listen.

Yeah, once you get past the cover and titles ("Born 4 Metal"...what?), Crimson Fire do have the airiness of melody and the verse/chorus components to prevent them from completely sucking, but they might want to grab themselves a manager or try to take what they're writing a little more seriously. Manowar this is not, and the entire 'metal' cliche in of itself is not really enough to satisfy even the most jaded listener, so why not vomit forth a little gumption and ambition? It's obvious this Greek band put a little effort into their songs, unique or not, and they sound like a reasonable approximation of Mystic Prophecy, Running Wild, Stratovarius, and another pretty average band from their country, Wolfcry, but Metal is Back seems so barren of any interesting ideas and motives that even the cohesion of the musicians suffers. This isn't bad, but they can likely do better. Far better.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/crimsonfiregr

Job for a Cowboy - Live Ruination EP (2010)

While I doubt Live Ruination is going to be of much interest to even the most beer goggled deathcore maven, the band have decided to release the EP digitally through iTunes for all those that weren't able to experience the bonus content on their Ruination vinyl release. So yes, this is not exactly new material, but helps the digitally exclusive inclined to find themselves on equal footing with the collectors. That said, this is primarily just a live offering, with one exception that took me by surprise: an Exhumed cover! Yes, the Arizona starlets have decided to tackle "The Matter of Splatter", and though it's anyone's guess whether the 2003 original (from Anatomy in Destiny) is even recent enough to be dredged up as a cover, the band do a decent job of applying their mentors' influence without copying them directly.

Unfortunately, the song is good enough that it makes the band's original tracks in the live setting seem so much less appealing. Now, I actually did not scoff at Job for a Cowboy's 2007 effort Genesis, which is one of the better albums of this style that I've been exposed to (largely because it's almost pure death metal), and there are two tracks incorporated from there, namely "Embedded" and "Altered from Catechization", but they don't really offer much compelling evidence that I'd want to see the band in the live setting. Tight and accurate, sure, but it's not as if the material is raving good to begin with. "Unfurling a Darkened Gospel" and "Regurgitated Disinformation" are taken from the more recent Ruination album, and "Entombment of a Machine" is drawn from the admittedly weak Doom EP back in 2005, and though I don't care for the tracks, they're do at least sound consistent live with the better material.

Even if you're stark mad over a Job for the Cowboy, this EP would not be worth the asking price, as the live components are fairly mediocre. If you've got the vinyl, well congratulations, the Exhumed cover must be a decent addition to a rather average collection of originals. I understand that the band is rather 'hot' in that they are able to move records, but this is the sort of release I really hate to see. They could have just as easily dropped these tracks over their MySpace or Facebook page for free downloads and spared their fans the six bones. However, if times are truly this dire, I'll make sure to contact my local UNICEF and send a donation to all the starving deathcore kids.

Verdict: Fail [3/10]

http://www.jfacmetal.com/

Living Death - Vengeance of Hell (1984)

Living Death might be better considered a speed and power metal infiltration squad who latched onto the thrash medium a few years into their development, but there's no real argument that even this debut album, Vengeance of Hell, contained the raw and rugged guitars and aggression comparable to old Metallica or their closer kin in Destruction. Despite its crude standards, and the rather shaky presence of frontman Thorsten Bergmann, there's a certain curb appeal here that unquestionably takes you straight back to the early through mid 80s excitement of uncertainty and menace that was so prevalent before the days of Wikipedia, instant internet gratification and guttural brutes attempting to out stomp one another.

Bergmann is clearly the weak point to this recording, because half of the album is spent with him sounding like he's trying to clear his throat or evoke images of two old women bickering at the local market. It's particularly annoying in a track like "Living Death" or "Riding a Virgin", where it almost nullifies the music completely, but a little less of a distraction in the great "Heavy Metal Hurricane", "You and Me", "My Victim", or the crushing "Vengeance of Hell" itself, in which he actually creates some appeal through the siren-like wailing, though he still might have you hovering upon the precipice of outright laughter. When the band drops the faster, speed/thrash elements for a pretty straight up metal tune like the pumping, nasally "Nightlight" or "Hellpike", the results become more varied. Clearly the guy has a voice, and can hit notes, but he almost seems to be under the illusion that he's a comedian and that people might want to experience his absurdity over the scorching metallic undercurrent.

As far as the riffs, they're fairly comparable to Running Wild, Judas Priest or Accept of their day, with a few surges into ruthless power thrash that serve as precognitions for their later 80s, 90s fare. The album has never sounded very good, even when it was released, and this primacy is one nagging flaw difficult to shake, even if you can get past some of the more awkward vocals. Still, I have to say that I still really enjoy the album for its musical attitude and nostalgic atmosphere. It's not the jewel atop the Living Death crown, I could bestow that honor only on the far thrashier Protected from Reality, which makes this look like a shaggy, unkempt peasant guest at a regal Renaissance dinner gathering. But it's fun despite its glaring 'problem'.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (it was her death blow)