Shifter of Minds

This album was released at the same time as another similarly-styled one, Donor’s “Triangle of the Lost”. Both efforts shared a very similar blend of thrash, power, and progressive metal those genres tossed, shaken and stirred in many, more or less predictable, ways the final result an absorbing, eventful saga full of surprises despite coming from seemingly familiar origins. Although reportedly extant from 1988, Altered Moves Two only have this solitary effort standing as a testimony for any activity in their camp. Not much having in mind a solid 5-year or so presence on the scene… Anyway, the guys must have been honing their weapons a bit longer than the other gangs who took part in one of the finest phenomena in the annals of music history: the Dutch progressive/technical metal wave of the early-90’s.

At the time when the album reviewed here appeared, the wave had already started, but had hardly gained a lot of inertia the Sacrosanct efforts and Paralysis’ exquisite “Arctic Sleep” EP the sole proven masterpieces at the time. The only more renowned musician in the band line-up was the guitar player Bert Ettema, a “deserter” from the heavy metal heroes Angus. However, the others looked more than well equipped to assist him in the creation of this outstanding work which starts “shifting the minds” of the fans without any hesitation whatsoever with the very first track “Fear’s the Conductor”, an amorphous shredder which never stands still but constantly shifts the riff and rhythmic patterns finally settling for dramatic retro power/thrash with a touch of Watchtower and Toxik, with the uncanny ability to produce some truly memorable song-writing regardless of the ever-changing rifforama and the abrupt tempo-shifts. Follows the title-track with a portion of intricate decisions which seemingly calm mid-paced nature suddenly gets replaced by spastic, speedy rhythms that complicate the environment in a way no worse than Rush at their most volatile and reckless.

“Rammstein (Murderous Rashness)” marches onward in consistent mid-tempo before more jarring arrangements sneak in still not ruining much the established officiant atmosphere another attempt for it to be broken being the cool melodic speedy passage near the end. “Action Speaks Louder than Words” “flirts” with melodic quirks as a start before infectious galloping sections take over to turn this anthem into an awesome battle rouser in the best tradition of Attacker’s “Second Coming” and later-period Helstar; watch out for the intricate accumulation of puzzling riffs in the middle which still doesn’t break the horses’ stride the latter carrying on accompanied by great melodic leads and delightful more aggressive build-ups towards the end. The finale comes on the form of “La Villa Strangiato”… yes, a Rush cover, this handsome instrumental one of the crowning achievements of the Canadians, here handled with the utmost dexterity made to sound more “hostile” thanks to more aggressive thrashy riffage, the hard to imitate vortex-like crescendos in the middle also expertly rendered making this piece one of the finest tributes to Rush’s impressive contribution to the scene. The “Six Strings” outro can only be a soothing, also instrumental, afterthought after such climactic performance.

To continue with the comparisons with the aforementioned Donor opus, this work is probably superior due to its more individualistic character and the not as overt reliance on the gimmicks provided by its American peers. It shifts almost at will at times with an involuntary surreal sweep, the guitar cannonades confidently led by the excellent clean dramatic vocals. It doesn’t rigidly obey norms and regulations again in a way quite reminiscent of their Canadian idols, and yet it doesn’t lose its memorable status never falling into show-offy, played-just-for-the-sake-of-it moments. It exercises certain discipline by choosing its own path rather than emulating the high models in the genre echoing the latter unobtrusively, never insistently.

The Dutch scene was strange to one-album-wonders at the time, meaning that almost every other practitioner made it to the second official release stage without fail (Rhadamantys couldn’t, but there always has to be an exception to the rule). These folks with the very original band name sadly never found the time to shine again; and they never bothered to leave other legacies like demos, promos, EPs, etc. Which is very strange since neither of them was seen in any other band later… A very mysterious, even esoteric if you like, batch who continue to mystify up to this day. They should rest assured, though, that they won’t be forgotten so easily: a major paradigm shift they instigated in those uncertain musical times; a shift that may have played its role in the eventual return of thrash metal onto the front echelon some ten years later.