Mittwoch, 30. Dezember 2015

Verwaint - Ohh! Rang! Uhh! Tang! (Crypta Records, 1994)

Haven't heard of that one? Well, this might be the rarest Crypta-label release .. even one of the rarest thrash metal CDs from Switzerland in general. I have no idea though what they were thinking with that artwork, haha! But hey, never judge a book by its cover! In 1992 they released their debut It Now Remains For Us To Explain, which was more straight-forward thrash than this one, but that's definitely not a bad thing. On their second full-length Verwaint managed to include crazy new ideas with some hardcore influences, impressive drumming (double bass on first track, pheew!), cheesy english and german vocals with a cute Swiss accent and a track in Swiss german - Dr Schiibäwüschr. Awesome!

The most sought-after releases on Crypta are still missing in my collection - Khroma Death, Gorement, Amboss - but I'm pretty happy to add this little gem. Never saw this one pop up on eBay and such, don't even know in which quantities this was pressed. Still good luck in finding this little fucker anywhere soon.






Freitag, 18. Dezember 2015

Capharnaüm - Capharnaüm (Kill Riff, 1993)

France was never really known for having a great metal scene (okay, maybe black metal) and that wasn't really different back in the day. So Capharnaüm from France is already kind of a band of its own. This trio as it was in 1993 plays thrash metal, the very generic kind. The sound is very thin, but that's kind of understandable with only one guitar and one bass guitar. However, what makes them drown in the sea of early 90s-thrash metal is obviously the lack of ideas. Their sound overall isn't memorable at all and you seem to have heard everything they're playing somewhere else already.

What's still impressing is that such small bands put that much effort in their music and band that they release a full-length that is still after all these years a quite sought-after thrash metal cd. Even if the sound isn't the best this self-released debut has its own charme for what it is. It has a cool cover artwork and several songs that shows the band trying their best. On my copy there is even a dedication from a band member to the former owner of the cd (don't know yet if that bothers me or not). The cd was limited to 600 pieces but pops up from time to time. If you're a completist or just out for a obscure, forgotten thrash metal record, this isn't the worst you can get.






Freitag, 11. Dezember 2015

Mass Confusion - Confusion Intrusion (Sidesplitter Records, 1990)

Yes, yes, YES! Finally could I get my hands on another copy of this Aussie thrash gem. It was about six years ago, when I stumbled across this CD on a local auction site for peanuts. I paid like 15$, imagine! However, I was dumb enough to sell it two years later for a fair price. I regretted it immediately. So the search for a copy in good shape and for a good price began.. and it lasted until very recently when I found it again. Man, was it a great feeling to unpack the parcel and listen to this forgotten classic again. These are 11 tracks of fast, fun thrash metal in the vein of Nuclear Assault and vocals similar to Vio-Lence or Anthrax. For a indie release this obscure it is very good and memorable, and the ending track 'Bowel Growl' could as well be the most hilarious fart-song ever written.

A big reason why my search lasted so long was the strict limitation of 1000 copies - half of them are cds only, and the other 500 copies are complete with inserts. So you could say it's limited to 500 pieces because who wants a cd only .. It also took me so long because everytime it popped up on auction sites, it was sold for ridiculous prices in the 300$-range. The price I paid was also very high for my standards, but it was definitely worth it. And who knows how long it would have took me to find it again.








Sonntag, 6. Dezember 2015

Legia - Legia (indie, 1993)

Sweden is pretty well known for their metal scene back in the day and even nowadays. The death metal scene is legendary, when it comes to thrash however, most people shake their heads. Even I struggle when I should name a few Swedish examples of thrash metal immediately. If you dig deeper then there seemed to be a quite nice little scene in the underground. Rosicrucian, Epitaph or Physichal Attraction just to name a few. And obviously there were more, even some I never heard of until recently. Legia is one of them. They formed in 1990 and released two demos before their self-titled debut in 1993. I have to say it is very good for a possibly very small and private release. It's far more memorable than most of the obscured private thrash releases from the 90s. It's intelligent and fast Bay Area-influenced with Hetfield-vocals.

Until a year I had no idea this band existed until I saw this cd on a picture on a forum. A guy uploaded a song on youtube and it was pretty nice Metallica-influenced thrash. So the hunt began, and it went on until very recently when I managed to fetch a copy for a very fair price from a guy on discogs.







Sarcasm - In-Sect (indie, 1993)

Sarcasm is another Swiss thrash band that everyone forgot pretty fast - or never even knew. Because In-Sect was their only release and this mini-cd is limited to 300 pieces for promotional issues only. The cover artwork is pretty badass I have to say, however the music delivered here is pretty generic thrash. It's mostly mid-paced thrash with hardcore influenced grunts and gang shouts. The riffs don't really stick out and the songs in general aren't very memorable either. The vocals somehow remind me of early Sepultura, and the riffwork could be compared to 'Product of Society'-era Defiance, however Sarcasm never build up a quality sound nearly as good as the two mentioned bands.

For completists and collectors this might be a nice addition to the collection. However, with it's limitation to only 300 copies In-Sect is pretty hard to come by. In recent times this fetched quite high prices (for example around 380$ on discogs! Whoever paid that price ..) If you wanna take a listen to it, there's a song sample on youtube.






Dienstag, 1. Dezember 2015

Assorted Heap - The Experience Of Horror (1MF Recordz, 1991)

Teutonic thrash back in the day wasn't just Kreator or Destruction but a well built little scene in the background that had just a bit of bad luck to be on the wrong labels (for example 1MF, which means 'one more flop', imagine!), or simply came to late to have an impact on the thrash movement really. I'd say Assorted Heap fall in the former category. While not even too unsuccessful with their debut The Experience of Horror, selling around 3000 copies, the label simply was a mess from what I heard (not paying the artist, horrible distribution, they even wrote the band name wrong, for fuck's sake! just look on the picture with the spine ..).

It's really a shame because Assorted Heap did a beautiful job on their debut full-length. Gorgeous death-thrash with strange solos, violent grunts from singer Didier (they all got funny names like Klause and Bänks, ..) and riffs that satisfy your needs completely! Very worth checking out is also their second effort Mindwaves from 1992, they even got a futuristic touch on that one. Unique!