Emerging from the Netherworlds

Another old school thrash metal classic from The Netherlands together with the boys from Dead Head. In later years Thanatos would incorporate more and more death metal tendencies in their music, but on the 1990 album ‘Emerging From The Netherworlds’ they were still raging thrash metal.

One could complain about the rather thin production, but it does do the album real good. The sharpness of the sound gives the guitars and songs the definition they need. Just like other Dutch thrash bands such as Abacinate/Brain Implosion and Dead Head, Thanatos included a decent amount of very fast and swinging riffs in their material that can almost be considered typical Dutch riffs since the Germans, Brits or Americans (and later scandinavians) had different types of riff writing.

Very catchy uptempo thrashers such as ‘Outward Of The Inward’, ‘Progressive Destructor’ and ‘Impostors' Infiltration’ are by far the best songs on the album filled with amazing riffs and being extremely catchy. Other highlights include ‘War’ and ‘The Day Before Tomorrow’ on which a lot of melodies and dynamics can be found as well, ranging from very slow sections to very high thrash metal tempi.

A lot of the material had been written in their demo period (1984-1989) so these songs had plenty of time to mature and it is audible the band knew these songs by heart, playing them with such ease. Also memorable is the screeching voice of Stephan Gebédi. His best vocal effort on any Thanatos recording.

If you like thrash metal, get this album. Mandatory!