IV Life

Quick Change were a Chicago thrash band who played well, but were completely drowned out in the thrash scene as whole. While they do aspire for the top 200 list of bands worldwide (1983-1991), they clearly failed to achieve a real breakthrough. Thus, by the 2000s Quick Change had moved their aspirations to new genre territory.

I will give them that; Quick Change had the gusto to make and release records without label backing. Both their second and third albums were self-released. This, though, is a band who would have benefitted greatly from some external help. They plainly and simply had questionable judgement. A quick glance on their Metal Archives profile reveals one of the dumbest band photos in thrash metal. This was followed up by one of the worst album covers by a thrash metal band with 2000's Money, Lust and Greed. The cover here on IV Life (For Life) is more neutral, albeit grey and boring. The music is alternative metal, very specific for its time in history.

The vocals that used to be thrashy are now low-pitched and melodic. For the lack of a better reference within alternative metal/rock, I choose to compare the vocal style to Creed. If you enter the album at any random point, chances are that you'll hear a drawn-out word such as "doooooooooooooooooown". Other vocal parts, still, are closer to nu-style rapping. In other words: This is exactly what you would expect from followers of early 2000s trends.

The creative value of it all is less apparent. While the production is ok, the riffs have less technicality and energy than Quick Change's previous thrash riffs. No riffs are that memorable. While I bet this is not a bad alternative metal album per se, it is not a good metal album.