Rise from Darkness

Australia can sometimes be a magical place, and while it never birthed particularly memorable bands, its releases are often worthy a shot, without huge expectations. I mean, if there's a place likely to brew a late thrash semi-classic in the mid-90s, then by all means it should be the land Down Under, given that it always seemed to be a couple years too late to the scene. But all this attitude and muscles (seems like all these ripped Jesuses on the world's crucifixes inspired Satan to do some workout as well), and an apparently nonsensical name, without forgetting that it's 1995 and after this album the members shelved everything and started playing nu-metal, should suggest that Eezee was far from the saving grace of thrash metal.

Rise from Darkness by all means offers more than just simple hints of the band's future direction under the Segression moniker. We can find some mixed tempo attempts in the opener 'Dead' or the punkier 'Time', then almost nothing worth noticing until the title-track and closer. It's never a good sign when the first riff qualifiable as thrash appears exactly 38 minutes in, I guess? It smells of 'War Ensemble', but at this point you bet I'm not complaining at all. Oh wait, there's another just after! I've never been happier to have heard two thrash riffs in a row... even then, I've probably sweetened the pill so far, because elsewhere it's just a sea of thuggish, simplistic grooves and Chris Rand's strained vocals on top. I naively started expecting some goodness from the soft, acoustic beginning of 'Creation', but not even my most pessimistic self could have expected those half-spoken, half-Mustained verses. 'The New King' will be the metalhead's kryptonite with its particularly grating chorus. Of course, the lyrics often follow the music: "You better pray but not to God, no pray to me/Because I'm your God, yeah me" ('Fury') or the entirety of 'Kick the Cat'.

Despite having so far described an almost total trainwreck, I'd say there's a reason to listen to it after all, and surprise surprise, it's the last thing you'll imagine: the solos. In basically every song they seem the only instances where Eezee members suddenly went like: 'Hey, we're a thrash metal band now that I think about it!'. I wouldn't mind a stronger album with these exact same solo sections on it, they're that good, at times almost Testament level (sans the same finesse), and I'm not kidding when I say that you should lend an ear to them at least once. The amazing minute-long solo of the opener is just the tip of the iceberg – the aforementioned 'Creation' and the bridge in 'Kick the Cat' even show a good ear for melodic playing. If you're thinking they don't fit at all with the surrounding unimaginative chugs, well, it sounds exactly like that. Even on a track as pointless as the short instrumental the ten(!) seconds leadwork is its only saving grace.

It's only a logical consequence, then, that this aspect made me reconsider the rating more than once. Yet, unfortunately, Rise from Darkness just isn't very good as a whole. Better to leave this one on your dusty Australian shelf.

-review written for the 8th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge – may you rest in peace, Chris.