Trapped in Perdition

Fueled By Fire was generally regarded as a brief flash in the pan and yet another in a growing pool of Crossover influenced bands with a hint of Bay Area sensibility along the same lines as the likes of Gama Bomb and Lich King, taking on a bit more of a Metallica approach than a D.R.I. or Nuclear Assault approach, but still not quite in the same league as the technically minded thrashers that were either lapping up the Teutonic sound of the bygone mid-80s, the riff happy madness of the late 80s Bay Area revivalists, or the blackened crowd going for something along the lines of Bathory and Venom. The visual of a textbook, jeans jacket toting thrasher beating on a group of emo kids did little to help matters, but they did manage a respectable group of songs with a bit more edge and aggression than some other bands that were of a beer, head banging, and the occasional nod to a horror flick.

But something changed on subsequent studio endeavors, and it's largely due to the fresh input brought by guitar soloist and technician Chris Monroy. While this shouldn't undercut the input of vocalist/guitarist Rick Rangel and the others, Monroy's blatant love of Chuck Schuldiner and Jeff Hanneman is pretty hard to miss, and serves to inject a good bit of atonal darkness and death metal tinged aggression into what was otherwise a derivative early Metallica meets Testament sound with a smattering of Iron Maiden harmonies as heard on "Spread The Fire". This death metal tendency was definitely present on their 2nd offering "Plunging Into Darkness", but on "Trapped In Perdition" it becomes almost so obvious that what would seem to be a nod to Slayer actually turns out to be musically closer to the likes of "Scream Bloody Gore" meets "Agent Orange". It wouldn't be much of a stretch to assume that Monroy's old school death metal side-project Skeletal Remains has bled into this band something fierce, resulting in something that can go toe to toe with their northern mid-west rivals Nocturnal Fear.

For all the flirtation with OSDM, "Trapped In Perdition" actually proves to be a fairly conventional red thrash affair if going by the standards of later 80s Sepultura and Kreator, though it's nasty enough to point at a helping of Demolition Hammer influences at times as well. There's no build up before the destruction begins, no miniature prelude before the storm, just a constant pummeling of the ears from one riff to the next, starting off on a very high note with the high speed fit of rage "Catastrophe", complete with a lot of dissonant harmonic material interspersed the frequent down-shifts in tempo, creating a sense of climax and denouement not all that different from the first couple Death offerings. Similar mixtures of tremolo picked chromatic sequences drawn from mid 80s Slayer and exaggerated into a proto-death metal character abound on "Forsaken Deity" and "Rotten Creation", almost making one wonder if this is what Chuck Schuldiner would have sounded like had he dialed back his vocals a bit and stuck a little closer to the Slayer model rather than building off the mutations that Possessed brought to the table on "Seven Churches".

Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that while this album shows about as much death metal tendencies as the auspiciously situated 1987 Infernal Majesty debut, it is similarly just outside the realm of earning a death/thrash credit, for the same reasons why one wouldn't slap Slayer or Kreator's classic 80s material with the label. Vocally the approach taken by Rangel is more based in raspy gruff than it is deep guttural barks, and the guitar doesn't embody that sort of sludgy character that tended to go with the early works of Obituary and Death, though it should be noted that the punch and treble-heavy timbre of the guitars does sound close to the dry, top-heavy sound that Scott Burns brought to the early Cannibal Corpse offerings, and the sweep-happy guitar soloing style meshed with their tendency for relatively short bursts might even make one consider how similar this would have sounded to "Eaten Back To Life" the latter had Mike Petrozza did vocals on it in a matter similar to "Pleasure To Kill".

A lot of nuance goes into differentiating this album's style from a number of iconic 80s and early 90s classics that were obviously a heavy influence on it, and that is ultimately what makes for a unique listening experience, something which many accuse the thrash revival scene of coming up short on. While there's a case to be made that this notion of the present crop of thrash bands simply being a rehash of past practices is an exaggeration, even if it were the case, this would stand as one of the more noticeable exceptions to such a scenario. If ambiguity between old school death metal and Teutonic thrash are on the menu, this would definitely have a highlighted position on the daily special insert. The fires of perdition burn with great intensity here, so let not thy flesh be spared a good auditory scorching.

I was never sold on the earlier releases from Californian thrashers Fueled By Fire, so it's pretty good to see that they've really got their shit together here on their third full-length Trapped In Perdition. Whereas I once felt they were token, cookie cutter thrash, here they bow down to the altar of the likes of Death's Spiritual Healing, and take their thrashing cues from more pugilistic acts such as Demolition Hammer.

Straight out of the gates Trapped In Perdition wastes no time in kicking up a storm, with a precise, rumbling riff assault. I'd like to think Chris Monroy's time with the excellent Skeletal Remains has had some effect on the sound, as this is definitely more aggressive and in your face, taking just as much from the formative death metal scene as it does that of good old thrash. I'd also like to think some of the shift in sound was also in part thanks to Erik Rutan's involvement, who of course produced.

Performances across the board are quality, with Rick Rangel's vocals sounding perhaps the best they have to date. His performance isn't too far away from the last album, although I'd definitely say a little more vitriolic. It's in his and Chris Monroy's guitar work that I find the most enjoyment on Trapped In Perdition. Every track boasts at least a couple of face-splitting riffs, and in comparison with their contemporaries I'd say the riffs are around the level of Bonded By Blood's Exiled To Earth - they definitely share some common ground, particularly in the perfectly articulated half time riffs. Chris' solos are well done too, and feel like they fall into place a little better than they did with Skeletal Remains. The rhythm section of Anthony Vasquez and Carlos Gutierrez (bass and drums respectively) is well done too, although I'd have liked the bass a little more prominent in the mix - it still sounds thick and driving. The drum performance is certainly worthy of note, with a fairly dynamic approach and plenty of shifting rhythms.

With furious numbers at their disposal such as "Suffering Entities" and the absolutely punishing "Rotten Creation" Fueled By Fire seriously dish up the goods on their third full-length. I'm sure any thrash fan will be frothing at the bit hearing this album, and the band rarely let up across its forty-five minutes. Without a doubt ranking among the finer thrash albums I've heard this year, Trapped In Perdition should be high on the to-buy list for any fan of the genre. Recommended!

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com