Why does 'The Fear' have only one review on Metal Archives? Just, why? Whereas some obscure niche black metal bands get 10 or more. What the hell happened to our collective memory? We seem to prefer to remember how much Metallica sucked from 1996 onwards (and fill entire blogs and youtube channels with it) but tend to forget all the great and (especially) fun things happening on the fringes of the late eighties metal scene.
Anyway. I am here to do something about this!
Acid Reign, the self-proclaimed United Kingdom Apple Core band are here with their first full length album after their previous rough diamond 'Moshkinstein' from 1988. I do not converse about metal with anyone not familiar with at the very least the word Moshkinstein. It is a matter of principle. And no, I am not British. Productionally The Fear was a big step up from Moshkinstein, compositionally a logical follow-up albeit slightly less crossoverish.
Acid Reign proved that thrash metal wasn't just a German or American thing. Granted, the U.K's greatness in heavy metal, doom metal, crustcore, grindcore (and many more subgenres) was never equalled in the thrash metal subgenre but they had a few really great bands anyway, Sabbat being the most famous one of the bunch.
Acid Reign were often called the UK answer to Anthrax. And I got why, The mosh riffs here and there but especially their fun attitude, quirkiness and crossover attitude. I always had a soft spot for bands making furious and fast music but not sticking to dogmas about lyrical content, artwork or what to pick from their wardrobe. Just look at their Hippodrome live recording from 1989 and you'll know what I mean.
I'm not saying Acid Reign were all fun and no substance. Far from it. They can't be compared to Lawnmower Deth for instance (although they shared a guitarist) . Acid Reign played in your face thrash. Plenty of changes of pace, furious riffs and mosh riffs, flashy guitar solo's. The lot. It's all here. And so damn energetic as well.
Listening to the fury and energy of this album, it's hard to imagine three ex- Acid Reign member would later join Cathedral. No, 'The Fear' is not a mindblowing full length debut like Sabbat's 'History of a Time to Come' was. No 'The Fear' was just a great album. One of the few thrash metal classics from the UK.
And The Fear also features Acid Reign's most famous song ever, 'Humanoia', which even made a best-of-1989 list on a national metal radio show in The Netherlands. (voted by listeners) And seeing the competition that year, that says enough.
(Although I must admit, the version of 'Humanoia' on the 10 inch version is slighty better, especially productionally)
I'm probably preaching to the choir, because if you're into eighties thrash, you probably already have Moshkinstein & The Fear.
That's all I got for now. Have an apple