Demon Preacher

For a country that was at the forefront of everything nasty and anti-establishment about rock music in the late 1970s, the UK doesn't get nearly the level of respect it would seemingly deserve for its contribution to its even nastier metallic offshoot. But if there was a singular album that could command such respect, and even go so far as to rival the heavy hitters of all the other scenes that were wrecking necks in the 80s, Deathwish's Demon Preacher would be the one. All of the darkened intensity of Germany's mid-80s Teutonic thrash explosion, the riff crazy proponents of the San Francisco Bay Area, and even the tech. obsessed characters spread across the rest of the continental U.S. are put on notice with this sonic child of perdition. In fact, even after repeated listens one is drawn to check the names of the band members and their country of origin just to insure that they are actually British given the massive divergence this thing represents from the rest of the pack.

In fairly stark contrast to their raunchy and low-fidelity debut, Deathwish has found themselves in a much crisper and more atmospherically dense place with this album, occasionally blurring the lines between the high octane thrashing character one expects from the late 80s with the creepier death/thrash atmosphere that would become a bit more common in the early 90s. This is best represented in the church bell chiming prelude to this monster "Death Procession", pounding out punchy power chords with a vengeance while echoing the slow trudging character of a funeral march. Similarly, much of the slower territory explored on "Visions Of Insanity" is almost theatrical in demeanor, occasionally drawing upon some droning keyboard lines to amplify the darkened atmosphere, while the guitar solo work sees a much more polished demeanor to rival most of the masters of the Bay Area scene, and the high octane thrashing sections speed with all the intensity of Dark Angel's famed mid-80s material.

Everything about this album comes off as a highly effective upgrade of where the band had seeming wanted to go on At The Edge Of Damnation. The mix is still fairly bass heavy and though not as informed by the gritty Motorhead sound that was on much of the debut, pulls this thing into territory conducive to the highly effective Sabbath cover. This band's rendition of "Symptom Of The Universe" both highlights and exaggerates the proto-thrash character of the song, giving it enough punch to rattle one's ribs and includes a vocal performance out of Jon Van Doorn that is so shriek-happy and demented that it would make Tom Araya blush. That's another major point of contrast relative to the debut album, Doorn's vocals are a bit more polished and flamboyant, bringing a bit more of a gritty side to his mid-ranged growl and spending about twice as much time in glass-shattering territory. Combined with a far more nimble riff set and a faster and more precise drumming performance out of Brad Sims, songs like "Demon Preacher" and "Wall Of Lies" present a sizable challenge to the most speed obsessed and spine-lashing adherents to the sub-genre.

It can be said without even the slightest trace of hyperbole that this is one of the most insane offerings of 80s thrash metal out there, to the point of challenging the certified collections of stylistic mastery as represented in Beneath The Remains, Agent Orange, Darkness Descends and Pleasure To Kill. Had this album come out in 1986 in San Francisco rather than Britain in 1988, it would have been universally hailed as an equal competitor to the crown as all of the classics that came with that year and began the road into what would ultimately become death metal. Stylistically this is further removed from death metal than the mid-80s offerings of Sepultura, Slayer and Possessed, but it definitely shows a degree of darkness and intensity that sets it apart from most of the mainline proponents of the style. The world may never know if Deathwish could have topped this album, but to this day most thrash metal bands haven't, and that truly says something for a band that had such a limited output.