When you come across an album that looks as ridiculous as this one does, your first thought is that it will be hilariously awful. With song titles like "Essence of Sperm" and "A.N.A.L. Spices", how could this be anything but a riot? Suprisingly though, once you get past the pretty shitty production, The Severed Erection is a pretty competent thrash album. The first two tracks, "Ejaculator" and the title track are good examples of well written thrash songs, as long as you can ignore the juvenile lyrics. The guitar playing is excellent throughout, leading one to wonder if these Aussies could have flown higher if they had decided to create a more intelligent image for themselves. There are far worse bands who had multiple releases in the 80's than Massive Appendage, yet because of their idiotic choice of a band name and album cover very few people outside of Sydney probably ever heard this album until the internet age.
Let me leave you with this: The chorus of the song "Massive Appendage" goes something like this, from what I can make out, "Massive cocks flying through the atmosphere. Oh my god they shot a load in his ear." Seriously. I could be hearing it wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what they're saying.
1. War Zone
2. Ejaculator
3. The Severed Erection
4. A.N.A.L. Spices
5. Massive Appendage
6. Constable Nosey Parker
7. What's Happening to the World
8. Auntie Claire
9. Essence of Sperm
10. Interlude
11. Get Fucked
Score: 5/10
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
Given that Possessed's first effort was one of the most extreme and brutal thrash metal releases ever, hopes must have been high for their sophomore effort. Presumably to the chagrin of many (some?) though, Larry LaLonde's dirty little secret seems to make a concerted effort to sound more like Metallica rather than Death on Beyond the Gates. While it's definitely not a bad thing to refine a sound to a desired goal, Seven Churches was such a revelation that this album can be seen as nothing but a disappointment. Is it an enjoyable listen? Of course it is. The overall tone is still oppressively heavy, with Jeff Becerra's barking vocals leading the way over the whirling guitars and pounding drums.
What's that I hear, though? Is that a hint of melody in the vocals, especially noticeable on "Phantasm"? Is that a riff that sounds like an early demo of "Trapped Under Ice" ("Tribulation")? The answer is yes. This is a band who has decided to reel themselves in, and let other bands blaze the trail to death metal, content to become an also-ran in the thrash metal genre.
I'm being harsh though. This is a good album, as far as thrash in 1986 goes, and probably among the top 10 releases of that year. There are still few bands heavier than Possessed at this point, but there are also bands who play tighter and write more interesting songs.
1. Intro
2. The Heretic
3. Tribulation
4. March to Die
5. Phantasm
6. No Will to Live
7. Beyond the Gates
8. The Beasts of the Apocalypse
9. Seance
10. Restless Dead
11. Dog Fight
Score: 8/10
Earlier in 1986, Metallica released an album that featured songs with extended run-times, with somewhat more complex arrangements and riffs that were repeated over and over, almost to the point of ridicule. Later that same year, Slayer decided to go in the exact opposite direction. With the exception of the opening and closing tracks, Slayer almost forego song development completely in favour of short, violent bursts of evil the likes of which the world had never seen. Their tactic is successful in a way, in that when the album is playing it is very enjoyable to someone who loves fast, energetic, evil-as-fuck music. However, once the music is over there's not a whole lot to remember.
If Slayer had made an album full of "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood", it would truly be one for the ages! But instead we have two fantastic songs, a few lesser lights like "Postmortem" and "Altar of Sacrifice", and then a bunch of under-developed drive-by's. The influence of this album is far-reaching, inspiring a host of death and thrash metal bands to up the violence and aggression, and to start playing those strangled-guitar solos that I kind of wish Kerry and Jeff never decided to play.
Overrated? Absolutely. This is nowhere near the best thrash album ever, and I really question why so many people feel it is. Innovative? Somewhat. Hirax did the fast, short, metallic bursts already, but Slayer brings a new level of credibility, professionalism and pure evil to it. Is it good? Yeah, it's good. It's fun as hell, but just not very memorable nor is it deserving of a lot of the praise that is thrown its way. That said, it still shits on a good share of the thrash albums that have come out up to this point and beyond, which is a testament to just how good a band Slayer were in their prime.
1. Angel of Death
2. Piece By Piece
3. Necrophobic
4. Altar of Sacrifice
5. Jesus Saves
6. Criminally Insane
7. Reborn
8. Epidemic
9. Postmortem
10. Raining Blood
Score: 8/10
I've always felt that the New York area thrash bands wore their punk influences on their sleeves more so than their Californian counterparts, and nowhere is this more apparent than on a Nuclear Assault album. Whether you sported long hair or a mohawk, Nuclear Assault's debut must have appealed to a wide range of punks and metalheads since it featured metal-as-fuck riffs coupled with a punk rock attitude. Add in some excellent songwriting and the howling vocals of John Connelly, and you have one of the better releases of 1986.
Nuclear Assault could play as fast as anyone, but they also played a lot of mid-paced stuff that was carried by great riffs and powerful vocals. Hearing songs like "Brain Death" and "After the Holocaust" in a sweaty NYC club in 1986 must have been quite the trip because even though they may not be the fastest songs around, they evoke a sense of turmoil that would have to make for a great live experience. Given the amount of notoriety other releases from 1986 have garnered, I'm surprised that Game Over isn't right there with them -- I mean, it's fun as fuck, and there are moments that are as punishing as anything out there at the time. Sure, the guitars are a little thin and there are some needless interlude tracks, but this is a welcome addition to the thrash metal equation.
1. Live, Suffer, Die
2. Sin
3. Cold Steel
4. Betrayal
5. Radiation Sickness
6. Hang the Pope
7. After the Holocaust
8. Mr. Softee Theme
9. Stranded in Hell
10. Nuclear War
11. My America
12. Vengeance
13. Brain Death
Score: 8.5/10
