Lifeforce

Psychosis is a California thrash band that had the misfortune of forming right after all the other major bands of the genre had already taken off. Though they may have become a classic if their debut album (it's really an EP) Lifeforce had been released six years earlier, it makes sense to me why so few people nowadays have heard of them: They were nothing new. And there was one band in particular who they were obviously trying to sound like.

They were trying to sound like Testament. That's the only explanation.

To quote Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that." It just isn't the most original thing ever, especially considering the range of diversity still being unveiled in the world of thrash in 1992. I mean, this is the year that Epidemic of Violence came out. Nobody wanted to hear quasi-melodic, slightly up-tempo thrash anymore; if they did they'd listen to the bands that were already well-known. And even the most desperately faithful thrashers probably wouldn't dare mess with a six-song album that sounds as if Practice What You Preach had better production.

So basically, if you didn't figure it out already, this singer sounds almost exactly like Chuck Billy's earlier melodic stuff. It sounds fine at first, but becomes bothersome as the record progresses. The riffs are just fine, but the best one on the entire album is the opening riff from the first song "Twist of Faith," and then after that, it mostly flattens out and becomes uninteresting, or it all starts to blend together.

I wouldn't condemn Lifeforce, but I wouldn't be likely to recommend it to anyone. It's not as packed with new ideas as much of what was occurring at that time and overall seems rather bland and flat. There was definitely so much more these six songs could have been, but it just falls short. The band could've built a better reputation by writing more songs or incorporating some fresh perspectives on thrash, but they decided against that, and that was their ultimate downfall.