Hallows Eve - Death & Insanity - August 31, 1986

Hallows Eve's first album was a bit of an up-and-down affair, lacking focus and direction. Their second release is not a whole lot different, but it's definitely an improvement on the first. Hallows Eve are not the most violent band, nor are they the most technical but they certainly are fun. They play thrash with a bit of an Iron Maiden flavour, epic and grandiose, which isn't a bad thing, but given what else is out there at this point, Death & Insanity just isn't all that impressive. "Goblet of Gore" is a fine song though, as is "D.I.E" and even "Lethal Tendencies" is enjoyable if not a bit repetitive. At any rate, this is a decent album, probably for fans of the genre only.

1. Death and Insanity
2. Goblet of Gore
3. Lethal Tendencies
4. Obituary
5. Plea of the Aged
6. Suicide
7. D.I.E. (Death In Effect)
8. Attack of the Iguana
9. Nefarious
10. Nobody Lives Forever
11. Death and Insanity (Reprise)

Score: 7/10

Hirax - Hate, Fear & Power - August, 1986

The problem with Hirax's first album, released a year earlier was that it was just too much of the same thing. 2-minute blast after 2-minute blast for a half hour can get tedious and is the main reason I've never been able to get into hardcore or grindcore. Whether it was intentional or not, Hirax improved on their debut in two ways. The first is that it's about half as long at a whopping 16 minutes. The second is that they figured out that good thrash isn't always full-speed ahead.

That second point is the key to this album being much better than their first album. Even though the first three tracks are straight-ahead speed freaks, with the 40-second title track featuring something that resembles a blast beat, it's the second half of the album where we see Hirax start to vary their songwriting. "The Last War" features an excellent, punishing main riff that sounds very similar to what Slayer would start doing a couple years later. The slower parts also give Katon's soaring vocals room to breathe and in doing so makes you wonder why they didn't do more of it. It's a shame that Hirax wouldn't be heard from again (other than a demo in 1987) until 2004, because there's a whole lot of potential in this release.

1. Hate, Fear & Power
2. Blind Faith
3. Unholy Sacrifice
4. Lightning Thunder
5. The Last War
6. The Plague
7. Imprisoned By Ignorance
8. Criminal Punishment

Score: 7/10

Detente - Recognize No Authority - August, 1986

Dawn Crosby is the fourth female thrash vocalist we've heard from and is definitely one of the more intriguing ones. Somewhere between the melodic shouting of Sentinel Beast's Debbie Gunn and the proto-death metal stylings of Holy Moses' Sabina Classen, Crosby is somehow more pissed-off sounding than Classen. She comes off like a female Paul Baloff -- very little real singing talent, but all attitude, and just fucking livid-sounding. Indeed, she did have some issues, dying about 10 years later due to liver failure.

What about the rest of the band? The album itself? Well, it's not awful, but it's pretty unspectacular. The band struggles to find an identity, mashing together some pretty decent, catchy choruses with verse riffs that just don't want to go together. The band definitely sound better when they're doing more mid-paced epic-sounding stuff, as opposed to the speedy, crossover parts they tend to fall into more often, but really the whole recording lacks intensity, so much so that it makes Crosby's vocals sound almost comical or tiresome. There are some bright spots, but they're mostly during the choruses when the whole band comes together with solid riffs and hooky vocals. Being that this is 1986, and we've already heard a large amount of truly classic thrash, well that just ain't gonna cut it.

1. Losers
2. Russian Roulette
3. It's Your Fate
4. Holy War
5. Catalepsy
6. Shattered Illusions
7. Life is Pain
8. Blood I Bleed
9. Widow's Walk
10. Vultures in the Sky

Score: 5/10

Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver - July 29, 1986

This is the first review that I've had to totally re-write for this project. I originally gave Doomsday for the Deceiver a 7, which is not a bad score at all, in fact it qualifies it as a very good album, definitely above average. I didn't post the review right away because something didn't sit right with me, so I decided to listen to it again the next morning. It's fairly obvious I didn't give it enough of a chance originally, because I turned it up loud, let the aggressive riffing swallow me up and decided this is a whole lot more than a very good album.

The overall sound of Doomsday for the Deceiver is extremely aggressive yet melodic, straddling the line somewhere between Metallica and Anthrax. Most of the songs are rip-your-face-off fast, with a lot of slow acoustic interludes and intros, some of which feel a little unnecessary. Jason Newsted's bass is fairly high in the mix, and I have to think it was at least part of the reason for him getting the call from Metallica because he puts on a fucking clinic on this album. Eric A.K.'s vocals are less aggressive than most thrash vocalists' of the same period, but they do fit the music well and give the music a bit of a Diamond Head feel at times.

What a solid thrash album. There are some weaker songs, but the strong ones are textbook thrash mastery. It's pretty obvious these guys had been listening to the giants since they formed back in 1981. I can't believe I was going to give this a 7...

1. Hammerhead
2. Iron Tears
3. Desecrator
4. Fade to Black
5. Doomsday for the Deceiver
6. Metalshock
7. She Took an Axe
8. ULSW
9. Der Fuhrer

Score: 8.5/10