Disappointment

This very obscure Polish formation should be much better known; they were the first act to epitomize the very popular post-thrash sound which conquered the 90’s, predating the style of The Black Album by whole two years, including the one on other similarly-styled works like Flotsam & Jetsam’s “Quatro” and Anthrax’s “The Sound of White Noise”.

On the album reviewed here the retro thrash dynamics is still present, mind you, but the more melodic, nearly leisurely, layout is early introduced with cuts like “Trudge to Front” and “These Things We Left” which move on with bumpy mid-tempo riffs carrying this patient ”beyond thrash” flair that would become a dominant motif a few years later. The first genuine attempts at the groove can also be traced to the album here, just listen to “Cold Ice in My Brain” and find the foundation for hundreds of groove-laden albums released during the 90’s. The attached, albeit gruff and not always very melodic, semi-clean vocals ala James Hetfield will continue pulling the proceedings towards the Metallica repertoire, including the several balladic compositions one of which, “Weakness”, is a template for the heavier side of the ballad with Metallica’s own “The Unforgiven” a very faithfully reproduced prototype. The more aggressive, thrashier material ("Empty Gestures", "Under Age") is also directed towards the mentioned US legends having the uplifting, carefree vibe characteristic of “Kill’em All”.

There’s very few genuinely angry or aggro histrionics here, this isn’t belligerent, vociferous stuff along the lines of Pantera and Exhorder; this is the counter-aggressive aspect of the 90’s post-thrashy vogues, the more melodic and more proficiently-performed option which in this case suffered a bit from the muddy production. Regardless of this last impediment, this opus stands as a pioneering work in the annals of metal, an achievement of which I’m sure our friends here never became truly aware of. I guess they must have been amused, and probably a bit proud, to hear The Black Album and the other mentioned efforts those coming with a much more polished sound and much better production qualities overall…

but they hardly felt tempted to try something in this vein now that it had become trendy and cash-churning, largely cause they had already moved away from this particular style, and had crossed into full-fledged old school thrash with the sophomore, an impressive slab of technical, more intense metal, a very surprising turn of events, but a highly admirable one which saw the band defying vogues and trends once again, disregarding rules and regulations with their defiant, gleefully arrogant stance. No weaknesses, no good, let alone necessary, riddances detected in their very short discography; the genesis of aggression they never produced, either, but who would complain when the beginnings were so “peacefully” pleasant and revolutionary.