Albums like Dark Angel's Darkness Descends are few and far between. The third of the 'unholy trinity' of brutal thrash albums from 1986, Darkness Descends is easily the best one. While Reign in Blood thrashed just as brutally as this, it didn't have the song development and variety to make it a genre-definer. Pleasure to Kill on the other hand featured some great songwriting, but didn't have the same emphasis on RIFFS that its American counterparts did, and it was just too sloppy overall. Darkness Descends succeeds because it combines the best parts of the other two. Great riffs are shoved in everywhere, Gene Hoglan's drumwork is exemplary and Don Doty's strangled vocals strike a perfect balance between melody and aggression.
The one problem with Darkness Descends is that the pummeling the listener endures is so constant, it's hard to pick out standout tracks -- there's really little room to breathe. Outside of the intro to "Merciless Death" and the slower parts of "Black Prophecies", the brutality comes at the listener in waves, so much so that it can be an almost painful listen at times. Regardless of that, Darkness Descends takes thrash to a logical extreme without stepping into territories reserved for death or black metal as bands like Possessed or Sepultura did before. No, this is thrash in one of its purest forms. Unadulturated violence, pummeling riffage, expert drumwork, frenzied barking vocals -- a true classic.
1. Darkness Descends
2. The Burning of Sodom
3. Hunger of the Undead
4. Merciless Death
5. Death is Certain (Life is Not)
6. Black Prophecies
7. Perish in Flames
Score: 9/10
There's a quote from Max Cavalera that I'll always remember that goes something like, "Back in Brazil there were definitely bands who had more talent than Sepultura, but Sepultura had the attitude," or something. That statement certainly rings true enough when listening to their full-length debut, Morbid Visions.
Don't get me wrong, Sepultura certainly play fast enough, but there's a sloppiness to their playing and a repetitiveness to their songwriting at this point which do nothing to separate them from the pack of thrash bands who are already starting to flood the market. Max's vocals here are also nothing compared to what they would become -- raspy, barked and largely monotone. Where they do set themselves apart is the youthful, reckless abandon with which they play. The feeling is so undeniably evil that you can't help but get caught up in stuff like "Troops of Doom" and "Funeral Rites".
It's not all just fast stuff either. There are moments, like the intro of "Show Me the Wrath" which are twistingly heavy at a pretty slow speed. Doom? No, but good thrash features variation in speed, and Sepultura are toying with that here. This is no landmark album, but it's the last of theirs to occupy that middle ground between thrash, black and death, and at the least it's a fun and nostalgic listen.
1. Morbid Visions
2. Mayhem
3. Troops of Doom
4. War
5. Crucifixion
6. Show Me the Wrath
7. Funeral Rites
8. Empire of the Damned
Score: 7/10
Album number two in the so-called "unholy trinity" of 1986 is an interesting one. Kreator reaches speeds here that are unheard of other than on Slayer's Reign in Blood, the first of that trinity, although these Germans do it much more sloppily than their American counterparts. In fact, while the speed of "Ripping Corpse" and the title track are impressive, there isn't a whole lot of interest riff-wise. When you strip the songs down, a lot of them are pretty mediocre riffs played really fucking fast. The album really doesn't do a whole lot for me until we get to the mid-paced section in the title track, which is just ruthless.
Mille and Ventor switch up doing vocals just like on their debut, but we are slowly seeing Mille taking over. Unlike the first though, I actually think the songs that Ventor sing on are better than most of the Mille-fronted ones. "Riot of Violence" is a killer thrash tune, while a lot of Mille's songs are just too fast and sloppy to be truly enjoyable, although "The Pestilence" is an absolute skull-crusher.
All that being said though, Pleasure to Kill is a pretty important album in the grand scheme of things. Other than Possessed's Seven Churches and the aforementioned Slayer album, this has got to be the biggest influence on death metal at the time, not to mention its hand in moving the thrash genre forward to more extreme tempos and harsher vocals.
1. Choir of the Damned
2. Ripping Corpse
3. Death is Your Saviour
4. Pleasure to Kill
5. Riot of Violence
6. The Pestilence
7. Carrion
8. Command of the Blade
9. Under the Guillotine
Score: 8/10
