Deathrow - Towers in Darkness 7" (1992)

Nothing beats a good old arcane eye/crystal ball/bat-demon to grace the cover of your first 7" single, and only single. Deathrow wanted to presumably celebrate the arrival of their 4th album Life Beyond with something special, after 3 years of silence, so they put out this limited edition record with an album track "Towers in Darkness" and two bonuses that were not available elsewhere. Privately I would love to tease myself into believing that these unreleased tracks would somehow counteract my disappointment with the band's final full-length. One of them is actually fairly good, but the other suffers too much from the similar vocals which would dominate much of Life Beyond.

First, of course, there is the A-side, "Towers in Darkness", which is one of the better and more diverse pieces musically on Life Beyond, with some slowly bludgeoning chords that work their way up into a nearly 5 minute sequence of acceptable riffing, even if its not at a Deception Ignored level of polish and punctuation. The vocals and lyrics do conspire to bring down the house, though, especially those like the following:

We have elevators, we have terminators
We have Arnold Schwarzenegger
We have batman, Superman, Spiderman
These are all heroes we want to be, to falsify the world we see

I get the point of the song, and its not a bad one, but compare this to the better phrased, blunt reality of Deception Ignored and it feels a little 'street' and silly. "Somewhere in the Night" is thankfully a superior tune, with over 4 minutes going into it, slowly rising and falling through a series of epic riffs that are easily the match of anything on the full-length it accompanies. The vocals are hardly a forte here either, but they are probably the most acceptable of the band post 1989, with a slight tinge of the whiny madness that Milo espoused on the band's masterpiece. I can't see why this would be omitted from the full-length, since you'd figure the better material should end up there. "We Can Change" seems pretty pithy compared to the other two tracks. There are nice guitars, good bass lines and some great piano here (not the first time they've visited that approach), but the vocals are a little lame and most of the thrash riffs, like the descending pattern in the post-chorus, are very pedestrian and uninspired.

Only a small population of listeners would be exposed to Towers of Darkness. It's limited print run would see to that. But I wonder if there were any, like myself, among those numbers that heard this and pulled the disc off their record player, hurling at a wall. I wonder just how many copies have survived through the years. Did this material spread fear among the fan of either the band's blood curdling, frenetic early speed/thrash phase or their sole flirtation with perfection some years prior? It would have fucking terrified me, and forced me to sleep with a gun under my pillow, one eye open. I did not hear this when it came out though, nor the full-length Life Beyond, so my sleeplessness was at least delayed for a few years. There's really not much value in the single, since one of the tracks is available on the album, one is forgettable entirely, and the other is just pretty good. What I'm saying is a few points for the exclusive material, take a few swigs of something stiff to forget all the pain that this inspires, and call me in the morning.

Verdict: Fail [3.5/10]

Deathrow - Life Beyond (1992)

In many, many years of listening to metal music, there are few albums which have left me so polarized or betrayed as Deathrow's 1992 finale Life Beyond. The brilliant Deception Ignored had me baited with anticipation for years, and to be truthful, I did not hear this right away. I simply had no access to it, and it was released through some small new label, rather than Noise. I'm not sure how you could let such a band go after hearing such a masterpiece, but then I am more of taste than purse, and the band were clearly far above the heads of most listeners. So it wasn't until the later 90s that I got to check out this long awaited beast, and man was I pretty disappointed. Let me qualify that this was partially due to be being a royal fuckhead, and expecting ANYTHING to live up to their 1989 work of obscure genius is like expecting to win the lottery. It was not going to happen. It's never going to happen.

Now, Life Beyond is still a technical thrash album. It's more of Deception Ignored than an attempt by the band to return to their earlier roots on Satan's Gift or Raging Steel. It's actually a more aggressive work than Deception Ignored, as far as the thick smear of guitars performing riffs at blazing speeds, but I feel like it's so much more American sounding, like the 90s Exodus albums or bands that were trying to adapt and modernize, maybe the later Defiance and Devastation records that came out in years relative to this. 1992, thrash was already written off, but people were still producing it, and Deathrow were just another band who fell victim to the changing tides. This was the end, so the band felt like going down thrashing at least.

The big issue I have with this is the relative dearth of quality, enveloping riffs, which the former album was loaded to the eyeballs with. Most of Life Beyond is a frenzy of showy, fast moving matter which impresses due to the bouncing fragility of the precise rhythms, but only for a moment once the listener is not recalled through any of the melodies. The vocals here are just average at best, Milo returning to a tone more reminiscent of Satan's Gift but with less of a standout accent. There are gang shouts and the vocals in general have a more urban feel to them, and that's just not what I want from the shadow of the band's former clinical, surgical brilliance. This is not the Deathrow of the asylum, but the Deathrow hanging on the street corner spraying graffiti on the local pimp's Cadillac.

What moments of brilliance occur here, generally do so because they bring back the 'feel' of Deception Ignored. One example is the intro to "Harlequin's Mask", which is graceful, fluid and melodic until the dumb verse arrives with corny sounding vocal patterns. For fuck's sake, if they just took off the vocals it might be a good song, but it sounds wholly moronic. "Homosapiens Superior" has some mighty riffing at around 2:00, and really the whole thins is pretty good, with less embarrassing vocals. "Reflected Mind" is fairly loaded with good quality riffs and I like the use of the keyboard atmosphere, but once again some of the vocals are a bummer. The namesake "Deathrow" starts with some dumb, plodding thrash but picks up into something almost worthy of the prior album, and "The Remembrance" is tight, just not exquisite. There's also "Towers in Darkness", which the band had released as an obscure single. The riffs in this one are pretty worthwhile, but the vocals are fucking silly and awkward, especially the lines about superheroes.

So frustrating! Perhaps Deathrow thought the cornier vocal approach would reap them a few distraught Anthrax/M.O.D. fans or encroach them upon a more groove-metal, urban audience, but the music is still far too tech/thrash to carry that supposition very far. Life Beyond has at least a dozen or so quality riffs buried about it, but these are too often spoiled by other elements in the songs. A few might pass for 'b-sides' to Deception Ignored material, and the guitar work is not necessarily any less technical, but I am left with a giant hole of disappointment in my conscience. One area in which the band has improved is the bass and drums, both are very well wrought here, in particular the better bass playing which some have cited as a flaw on Deception Ignored (though it's not at all). Most of the lyrics completely miss the damned mark, where I enjoyed them last time out. This is the least entertaining of all the band's records, and even though there is some pure, virile thrashing to make the neck sore, and an overall impressive level of musicality, it stinks of not only jumping the shark, but rubbing it the wrong way, until the wrists and palms bleed and you're surrounded by a whole school of the toothed beasties (aka the 90s) which sucks and slurps you down into oblivion.

Et tu, Brute?

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (what we get is a piece of cake)

Deathrow - Satan's Gift a.k.a. Riders of Doom (1986)

Satan's Gift is the debut of Germans Deathrow, and quite a far cry from the direction the band would later develop into. This is rough, rugged speed/thrash metal with heavily accented vocals of a mid range. None of the complexities of the band's magnum opus are present, although the band could still write a pretty mean riff that helps propel the material forward. You can definitely hear a US influence from early Metallica, Slayer, or Possessed, combined with the first few works of Destruction or Sodom, but despite all this, the band didn't really get a heap of attention. Fortunately, they were on Noise Records, benefiting from the best roster ever in 80s metal, so they developed a peripheral audience among fans of other acts like Tankard, Vendetta, Coroner, Voivod and the like.

Though the album was originally called Satan's Gift, it is also known as Riders of Doom, after being banned and re-released with a new title/cover artwork. Considering the times, this is not such a surprise for a few random metal albums to be targeted, especially when one has an image of the devil holding some bloody organ of the savior, the crucifixion in the background. Actually, this guy looks a little like Kreator's mascot in the 80s (another Noise Records band), and the cover kind of sucks, so I actually prefer Riders of Doom. This was not the first Deathrow record I was exposed to, that would be Raging Steel, but listening back I feel like the two are at the same level of composition and viral, raw power German energy. If you fancy one, chances are you should also dig the other, and ultimately I prefer this debut slightly.

"Winds of Death" is a 2:30 minute instrumental which sets up a moshing battery of slower rhythms, while chords stretch across their taut surface. This is just a tease, because the title track "Satan's Gift" then explodes at a far greater speed, and we hear Milo's dark, early vocals, which sound pretty sloppy but endearing, almost like a crossover/thrash voice. The riffs are dirty and frenzied, but they're not entirely hooky, nor is the chorus. Instead you've got a comparable style to a Vendetta, Tankard, Exodus or Razor of the times. Just good, friendly, violent fun. "Riders of Doom" continues this hyperactive blitz of manic speed/thrash, reminding me quite a lot of Hell Awaits-era Slayer, especially the way the chords change and the vocal patterns squirm, you feel like you're about to hear the words 'Homicidal Maniac' at any second. "Hell's Ascent" is a little more melodic at first, almost Running Wild style but then yet again transforms to burst attack mode. I love the solo sequences after 2:00.

Speaking of 'attacks', the next piece is titled "Spider Attack". That's one of the best song titles I've ever seen, and totally fit to the 80s innocence of this record. It also kicks ass, but by this point, the band playing at the same speed in every song (at least chunks of the songs) has become a little redundant. At least here the riffs are slightly cooler. "Slaughtered" sounds like a great hybrid of early Slayer and Destruction, but with increased levels of shredding madness, and "Violent Omen" has great guitar work also, though the slower, plodding thrash rhythms are less than desirable. "Dark Tales" opens with an elegant, clean brooding guitar passage and then once again, a blitz of welcome but predictable speed, interlaced with some intricate guitar spasms. The band really went all out here, probably one of the fastest records of its type, at least from Germany. The closer "Samhain" was the band's former namesake (they recorded several demos under that name), and no surprise its another fast as fuck volley of black arrows targeting the listeners' eardrums.

If you're a big fan of crazy ass, hyper 80s thrash like Dark Angel, Slayer, Razor, and so on, I think Satan's Gift would truly appeal to you. The composition is quite straightforward, though the band do contribute some killer hooks at times. I'll be honest, this is like crude oil that has yet to pass a refinery, but if you love that insane edge like Evil Invaders, Darkness Descends, Hell Awaits or Bonded by Blood, this is a grim, blood-dripping paradise. On one hand, it's the heaviest and fastest Deathrow record, but this is a band capable of so much more, especially in the vocal area (wait until you hear what Milo would sound like in but a few years). I don't love it or live it as often as many other records of its type, but a minor cult classic here if you are in dire need of speed.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (they know that they have to die)

Deathrow - Deception Ignored (1989)

Deception Ignored is one of the most anomalous recordings in all of European thrash, because it's both one of the most brilliant and under-appreciated efforts of its nature, a feat of technical thrashing wizardry which takes a massive influence of classical composition, and incessant complexity and unending stream of killer, structured riffs that have rarely if ever been rivaled since. Surely they were not the only band of their type in this period: Watchtower, Coroner and Mekong Delta all exhibited a similar level of competence and originality (the latter, fellow German band being the closest in style). But of all of these titans, counting among my favorite bands, it is Deathrow who stood out the most for their frightening, clinical approach to the material which places the listener into a labyrinthine vortex of riffs, sounds and imagery...at least on this album.

Yes, Deception Ignored is a major step-up from the bands previous work, Satan's Gift and Raging Steel, which were fun, aggressive excursions of a more rugged speed/thrash nature. It was as if an alien, advanced culture landed among a tribe of primitives and spread the seeds of technical renaissance, because this album is heads above anything else the band have released in quality and songwriting. I've heard some complaints about the production, and sure, for the 21st century it might not be the top tier of studio sound, but the guitar tones still some brilliant and the vocals shrill, exciting and unique as they scream and cavort through clinical topics of drug use, society, and politics. It's amazing just how much the cover art to this record stands out as an icon of schizoid, demented thrash aerobics, because you can easily close your eyes when listening and imagine a room full of pale, laughing faces, almost alien as they surgically separate each emotion and tactile response from your brain and nervous system, a dissection of every fabric of your being. This album is a true trip to the psyche ward, or the asylum, a harrowing journey which will stun you repeatedly. I've been listening to it for over 20 years, and I still discover new bits of wondrous, paranoid melodic riffing and atmosphere all the time.

Part of the reason this record stands separate from the previous work is the addition of guitarist Uwe Osterlehner in the second guitar slot, replacing Thomas Priebe. Together with the veteran Sven Flügge, they create an impressive wealth of textural, woven riffs that catapult the album into any tech thrasher's dreamwork. The riffs occasionally remind me of Metallica's opus Master of Puppets, but drawn into a more frenetic cyclone of inspiration. I quickly lose myself here without fail, on every spin, because of their twisted psychosis, like trying to escape a straight jacket while studying a piece by Escher simultaneously. Combined with Milo's adaptation to a more nasal, whined vocal tone that he used on the band's prior records, his popping bass narrative and the solid, rigorous storm of Markus Hahn's drumming, this is one team of cosmonauts that should have been hailed the Ludwig Mozart of thrash. It's really that good, believe me.

I could write a textbook on almost any track on the album, but I'll try and spare you from the torture and myself from the inevitable fallout. "Events in Concealment" swells to the fore with a complex introduction to the band's lattice of unsound mental exercise, thick banks of twisted chords that erupt into an epic thrash gallop around :35 into the song. Any Metallica fan would be banging his head by this point, but there is so much more to come, including little whirs of melodic gloss amidst the thundering bottom end, grooving drums and Milo's slicing tone. Even the title of this song is fucking excellent, and when the band explodes into the playful little melodies around 1:30 your shorts will be wet with the thick, viscous discharge of conception. The storm alleviates only to be rejoined by the epic, glistening melodies that arise to announce "The Deathwish", with some of the most beautiful, complex riffing I've ever heard in all of this genre and beyond. Bursts of mesmerizing rhythm collapse into scaling, descending patterns of chaos that feel like a surgery gone wrong.

"Triocton" shows another face to this band, that is the ability to compose amazing piano segments. The intro is but a moment long, but incorporates several seasonal shifts in key striking that morphs beautifully into an organ tone before the gallivanting, schizophrenic thrash begins, a barrage of exciting, jump out of your skin guitar riffs that fully fills out the 8+ minute bodice. It's like a virtual, instrumental ballet of aggression, with more quality guitar elements than appear on most entire metal albums! Not once do you feel a lack of vocals, despite the length of the composition, and that's a top honor. Not many bands could pull such a vision off. "N.L.Y.H.", which is short for "Never Lose Your Humor" (a motto I have lived by ever since losing my nuts over this record when it came out in early '98), grounds the record back to the earthly parameters, a shorter, 3 minute assault of thick, choppy thrash, but just as busy in its writing as most of the more ambitious sequences. It flows wonderfully into the tearing, frightening melodies that rip "Watching the World" open wide, a cautionary work of machine-like precision thrash with all the sentimentality of a satellite eye, focused and ready to kill. For fuck's sake, the riffing behind the vocal verse is just unbelievable. Too few bands put this work into their actual guitars, and it provides an eerie immortality to the record as a whole. The chorus is one of the more memorable of the band:

We are so clever and arrogant
It's in our hands to change everything
Who's watching the world?

That is all that needs to be said, my friends. The solo in this one is like a charging German war symphony over a surge of artillery fire, and after this, one of the most ambitious and fine tuned performances in the entire genre of music: "Narcotic". The flange over the intro riffing, after which a sequence of thundering muted melody bridges us to a bass sequence, and then the mockery of the verse rhythms, which play with your mind like a cadre of demented clowns with syringes full of every drug and ill humour in all of existence. Have you ever had a bad trip? This is the thrash version of that. The vocals are off the hook here, Milo opting for a mix of his mid range and higher, phantasmal tones that are brilliant alongside the punch of the strings. Of all the songs on the album, this is the most considerable at over 9 minutes, and the most involved. Fans of modern tech thrash like Vektor should absolutely start here, because Deathrow was doing it decades ago. Other points of light include the guitar rupture around 3:00, and the elevating desperation around 6:40. It's as if Deathrow plotted out an entire substance abuse nightmare with which to string along the listener.

Encircled and trapped by ourselves
We're enslaved to mass productions
Self-deception from a better life
Our behaviour brings corruption
We buy a pig in a poke
And we drown ourselves in the garbage

"Machinery" manifests through some lite, jazzy guitars that exhibit even more of these players' strengths, and then a jackhammering bass line explodes into an industrial-strength flower of mind fucking fervor, another testament to 100% riffing dominance, and some superb vocal melodies, woven in and out of the track's bleak, futurist lyric landscape. The chorus where Milo screams 'We're just wheels, in a great machinery' will NEVER cease to reverberate up and down this listener's spine, and the haunting array of mathematical, punchy rhythms deep in the track are just as thoughtful as anything else on this album. The CD and cassette include an added, worthy beast in "Bureaucrazy", with yet another blitz of solid, turbine guitar work that waltzes through playful solos as if they were playing violins from the devil's symphony pit. I am glad the label popped this one on there, because it truly rounds out the experience with a shorter length and some serious, serious fun.

Deception Ignored is a testament to human achievement in extreme music, but unfortunately the multitudes were so uninspired and uninterested in anything with this level of ambition. What truly stuns me is that I've read the band themselves consider this their worst album, preferring the more honest and pedestrian pounding of the first two. Guess what, Deathrow: you are wrong. Wrong I say! It's a pity you never realized exactly what you had with this! Now, I can see how this would fly are over the layman listener's head, but to those out there that can appreciate its captivating maze of rhythm and fruitful, important lyricisms that all stand just as relevant today as decades past: you are goddamn lucky men and women. This is brain-thrash, mesmerizing and easily could be used to replace mind altering drugs of any stripe or flavor. The production is not so dry and clinical if you listen with good headphones or stereo, for the bassy chugging of the mutes helps give it a broad spectrum of fingers to reach into your body cavities and extract vitality.

It's quite clear that autothrall is a fanboy of this particular album, and in fact it is my favorite single German thrash album in all history, exceeding my favorite works by Tankard, Kreator, Sodom or Destruction with ease. But then, this is the very sort of media for which a diehard worshiper should exist! Surely, those bands have all got some perfect records that I will forever hold dear, but this just goes high and above the top for its day and age. Mekong Delta was crude by comparison, and even Watchtower's Control and Resistance, as much as I love it, is just not as consistently perfect. It was a sad day for me when these Germans released the follow-up, Life Beyond, which only exhibited a fraction of the brilliance on parade here, and thus I was quick to rationalize this as an anomaly, a cosmic event, a singularity in demented execution that I was just never going to hear again in my life. This is as 'desert island' as they get, and I hope I never have to live without it.

Verdict: Epic Win-jection [10/10] (the aim we should all reach for)

Deathrow - Raging Steel (1987)

Knowing what I know about the band's future output makes it a little difficult to take an objective look backwards. 1989's Deception Ignored is a masterpiece of technical German thrash, an album of bewildering depth and complexity which few have ever matched. Before that point, Deathrow were a pretty average German speed/thrash metal band with dirtier vocals sounding like a sped-up Thomas G Warrior of Celtic Frost.

Raging Steel is their sophomore album and it was a slight cut above the average level of depth you'd find in this style. Let's say it's a little riffier than Iron Angel or Sodom, but at a similar level of aggression. This album was actually my first exposure to the band, having heard "Dragon's Blood" on the local college radio metal show and then tracking the album down (this was how I discovered a great deal of local and international bands back then). That track remains a favorite on the album for me, with its mystical fantasy lyrics. It's not alone though, there are some decent and raging tracks on the album, and if you listen deeply enough you actually can hear a little of what would go into their more technical approach later, only encased in a thicker, more violent skin. "Raging Steel" is a flurry of precision, lightning fast riffs blur, breaking for some guitar melodies. "Scattered by the Wind" has a great grinding and grooving opening thrash riff before the verse takes off at high speed. "Mortal Dread" has some cool, slower riffs which lend a doomy atmosphere. "The Undead Cry" begins with a nice bass line and then becomes another of the album's best tracks.

The mix of the album sounds chunky but reasonable if you're a fan of the older German records like Vendetta's Go and Live, Stay and Die or Kreator's Terrible Certainty. The lyrics are decent and the vocals also, though they don't reach that creepy and anaesthetic feeling that they do on Deception Ignored. Listening through it again after some time, it's not such a bad record. Certainly the roots of their explosive talent can be traced to this, but when you compare it to Deception Ignored it's much like comparing a neanderthal tribe to Babylon. I was honestly quite shocked to read that the band actually prefers this earlier material. Perhaps what they came up with was so good that it intimidated even them. Well, there is no accounting for taste...

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (in the arena of gods)

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