Inextricable Reversal

Abstract mathematical stuff, in other words, one that comprises one of the most bizarre surreal time and tempo changes in the annals of thrash metal, and not only, charmingly dishevelled, openly bordering on the chaotic at times, music that still enchants rather than befuddles. The guys were one of the bravest experimentators in the late-80’s within the progressive thrash metal confines, alongside their compatriots Vigilant, trying to see how far they could stretch the already pleasantly twisted formula thanks to other vigilant... sorry, visionary outfits like Target, Deathrow and Mekong Delta.

It’s good that the band managed to put some reins on their wild imagination for the full-length cause, man, was the latter running rampant with all the audacious, adventurous zest it could summon here. It only sounds relatively bridled on “Mass Termination” which later found place on the official release, a spastic busy, but not outrageously intricate thrasher. The other three cuts can’t even be viewed remote candidates for it the guys using them as vehicles for their contrived, super-elaborate visions. And yet amazingly it all comes as one big over-the-top slab of semi-chaotic musical gorgeousness that even bodes some (false) semblance of normality at the start of “False Insinuation” which begins with stomping, almost doomy motifs before eclectic headbanging thrashing commences assisted by mid-ranged clean vocals, the stride frequently interrupted by jarring, plain head-scratching at times walkabouts although the main dynamic skeleton miraculously survives till the end.

The eccentricity reaches a culmination on “Agony and Hate”, a truly challenging 9-min saga which introduces the speedy escapades earlier with technical and melodic motifs interlacing with each other on top of hectic jazz-like stopovers the latter repeated on regular intervals, the seeming binding etude on this puzzling masterpiece which also engages the bass player more fully his burps commanding the proceedings underneath layers of intricate, perplexing guitarisms and unexpected lyrical balladic pop-ups. “Christopher” is almost as endearingly assembled with more aggressive thrashing involved, but executed in the vicinity of ultimately abstract offbeat rhythms and totally weird time-signatures, the more brutal excursions sounding even more outlandish and befuddling, not to mention the several brilliant lead sections where the guitar player shows a lot of promise for more exuberant, flashier pyrotechnics in the days to come.

A dress rehearsal for the colossal full-length? Both yes and no; the song-writing here is both more adventurous and more dishevelled, the guys pumping an ingenious idea after another into this not very long format, this accumulation following some elusive inner logic for most of the time, by all means performed with a lot of enthusiasm, but missing something from the discipline department, to these ears for the better. The late-80’s landscape was surely tolerating such unrestrained flights of the imagination, the wilder the better was the stance, and this effort should have ranked very highly in the early left-hand-path seekers’ list. The rough sound quality may have pulled back some back in those days, but this is one of the rare examples where the genius unleashed overwrites all possible shortcomings along the way.