I Am Alive

In other words, the Cunning One knows no rest regardless of name changes and more or less drastic stylistic alterations. Astharoth, one of the greatest Polish metal demons… sorry, acts ever, decided to share a piece of the American Dream, and relocated on the other side of the Atlantic, the Bay-Area to be more precise, in order to pursue their lofty musical aspirations. Their only full-length “Gloomy Experiments” (1990) is a milestone in the annals of progressive thrash, an exquisite work of labyrinthine riff-patterns and other-worldly psychedelic vistas, one that would be very hard to beat in this or any other lifetime.

A situation only too familiar to its creators who relax here under this new moniker, their first stint on US soil, playing still fairly contrived brand of old school thrash that will bring to mind masterpieces like Infernal Majesty’s mythical debut, Hexx’s “Morbid Reality” and last but not least, Coroner’s indomitable “Punishment for Decadence”. Yes, this is a departure from the inimitable soundscapes of the “Gloomy Experiments”, but one that would still enchant the audience with its carefully plotted configurations which on the title-track are served as a marvellous symbiosis of direct ripping escapades and tightly-woven technical crescendos, both sides alternating in a strictly logical fashion. The impetuous gallops and the classical-prone fretwork on “Acid Reign” will mostly resonate with those who left their hearts on the mentioned Coroner opus, not so much with those who fell for the shenanigans of the British act of the same name, the subdued semi-shouty deathy vocals not doing much except humbly assisting on the side, occupying more space on the short more direct headbanger “Crack”. It’s one endless multi-layered rifforama on the progressive thrash behemoth “Endless Dark”, a shape-shifting roller-coaster with a deep atmospheric undercurrent which gives a delightfully rich brooding colouring to the complex musical developments.

Not a very radical change of style, these a bit over 20-min of musical mastery of a different breed showed the guys (and a girl, one of the guitar players) in a different, but still fairly attractive light. The Bay-Area only benefitted from the presence of such visionaries although few were those who paid serious attention as the tastes had already shifted towards the Black Album and its numerous clones. Mere months later this project was folded and the band reverted back to their previous devil-ish name for the release of three extraordinary demos, each of them a pinnacle in the progressive thrash catalogue, with an overall approach closer to the one on the full-length.

So an epitaph this wasn’t; it was a brief, albeit fairly impressive, respite from one of the most striking trajectories carved on the metal circuit; a 4-tracker that will be fondly remembered by both avid Polish metal enthusiasts and the “obscure gems from the Bay-Area” scholars.