For Freedom I Cry

There is a graveyard with seemingly unending boundaries where dozens upon dozens of thrash bands were laid to rest before having the opportunity to fully blossom into formidable forces in the genre the way the early guard had. Most of these forced early 90s abortions were on the derivative side, but this is generally the trend of lower tier bands, particularly on their debut where they may have just made the transition out of being a tribute/cover band. Victoria Texas’s one time potential act Acridity is such a lost child of the then fizzling thrash scene that managed to birth a singular LP circa 1991, and was likely buried under the hype surrounding the more grooving approach taken by Pantera and Exhorder, along with the more commercialized, slightly less extreme tendencies of coinciding output by Metallica and Anthrax.

The band named themselves after a somewhat obscure term that can either denote something irritating, unpleasant or sharp pertaining to taste, smell of language; but the actual sound heard on “For Freedom I Cry” doesn’t invoke the images of embryonic death metal ala Demolition Hammer or Destruction that this would tend to denote. In fact, this largely resembles a slightly more developed and varied answer to Testament’s “The Legacy”, which was itself something of a throwback to the speed/NWOBHM tendencies of the genre during its infancy a few years before. Riffs are plentiful and loaded with plenty of bite and punch, but the flavor is pretty close to what Slayer was doing right as they made the transition from heavy metal to thrash on “Show No Mercy”. A good case and point would be the principle riff of “Lethal Idol”, which has a very strong 1983-84 flavor, despite being one of the more intense works on here.

Everything on here is done competently, and there are even a few standout songs such as the semi-Maiden inspired epic “The Verdict” and the chaotic “Nothing Held Sacred”, but this is extremely safe and tame by 1991 standards in terms of stylistic development. The weak areas are primarily in the lead guitar work and the vocals, both of which are performed adequately but with little edge or distinctiveness. At their peak, the guitar solo interchanges don’t go far beyond basic Kirk Hammett worship. Vocalist Darin Carroll is settled pretty comfortably in that gritty James Hetfield meets Chuck Billy shouting space, but lacks the higher range of the latter and the gusto of the former when he was at his peak. Largely this album is carried along by solid songwriting and some pretty impressive rhythm guitar and drum work, particularly on the closing fit of chaos that is “The Vigilante”, which is a bit more in the 1986-1987 when the Bay Area bands started really cooking and there was no such thing as too much speed.

Any self-respecting thrash enthusiast/historian who dabbles in the obscure will find something worthy of tracking down here, and pretty well anyone who liked thrash metal before “Reign In Blood” and “…And Justice For All” began pulling the genre in various other directions, or conservative thrash lovers for short, will find a good amount to like here. Who knows, with all the revivalism going on in the style nowadays, there could potentially be a reunion possibly in the making at some point here, as was the case with a couple of older bands who met a similarly untimely end in the aftermath of the grunge explosion. Only time will tell.