Presence of Mind

First, apologies for the lengthy digression at the beginning. Second… to none.

The early-90’s metal scene: a barren, apocalypse-foreboding picture. Strangely enough, thrash metal took the biggest fall of all the metal genres: most of the practitioners from the Bay-Area mutated almost beyond recognition their counterparts from the East Coast (Anthrax, Overkill, etc.) following in their steps a bit more slowly, but surely with the sudden spasm of nostalgia (remember Overkill’s “W.F.O.”) displayed to an ever sadder effect. The genre had no choice, but to look for a “safe belt” on the other side of the Atlantic, and to find it in this ever-reliant metal bastion, Germany.

In 1992 thrash metal was still alive… at least in Germany. Deathrow were back with “Life Beyond” which was a distinct, albeit hardly exceptional sequel to its grand predecessor “Deception Ignored”. Then came the Deathrow/Psychotic Waltz collaboration “Your Last Orison”, released under the name End Amen, which was a true progressive thrash masterpiece. Mekong Delta acquitted themselves with the more accessible technical thrash, compared to their past efforts, on the excellent “Kaleidoscope”. Then came the dessert served by the newcomers Depressive Age in the form of their brilliant debut “First Depression”. And things looked good again…

at least in Germany.

The aforementioned albums inspired a wave of new acts (Entophyte, Lost Century, Megace, Deterrent, etc.) who tried to follow on the complex routes drawn before them. Most of them did a fairly good job although the word consistency hardly comes to mind considering the regularity of their output: Entophyte and Deterrent split-up after only one album; Megace made a gigantic 8-year hiatus between their two opuses; and so on. Skeptic Sense were no exception with just one album under their belt; but that album can rightfully be placed on the very top of the wave.

The main reason why this album is favoured so highly, at least by those who have heard it, is that it binds together the best of the progressive/technical scene from the late-80’s: it digests into a bit over half an hour the essence from Sieges Even’s “Life Cycle”, Deathrow’s “Deception Ignored”, Target’s “Master Project Genesis”, and Realm’s “Suiciety”. It doesn’t quite mess with the leaders of the genre Mekong Delta, but then the cocktail would have become too inaccessible even by the more trained ears. Still, it remains one of the most perplexing elaborate works of the 90’s, a masterful display of technical wizardry not indulging even for a split second in a virtuous show-off although it covers to a fair extent the overcomplicated landscapes from the aforementioned Deathrow album. The longest and consequently most complex material is placed at the beginning, and the two opening tracks would be enough for one to get a headshake dazed by the constantly changing rhythms and the unexpected riff vortexes which appear out of nowhere. And watch out for those very highly-strung clean vocals which hit the high notes quite often sounding like Russ Anderson (Forbidden) at his most dramatic and attached.

“Human Indulgence” is a relatively direct short speedster, but the following short, largely instrumental, “Raped” will rape you big time with a whirlwind of puzzling guitars; a truly jazzy hallucinogenic experience. “Downfall” is another more straight-forward track concentrating on the speed more, but be prepared to get startled again by the next technical “show” which is the fast-paced bewilderer “Norm Always Wins”, a seldom achieved labyrinth of very complicated, constantly overlapping riff-patterns. “Last Moments” is not the last song (it’s the penultimate one), and is another more immediate reliever before the closing “Capital Punishment” overwhelms you with the final portion of weird time-signatures and illogical riffy decisions, an approach later elaborated on the Spiral Architect only effort who must have slept with this album under their pillows for months.

One may wish those short more direct numbers to have been less, hence the not perfect mark; but the combination works great the band never forgetting about their thrashy side keeping the proceedings immersed in intense dynamic formulas the whole time. There’s nowhere a loss of plot or unnecessarily accumulated virtuoso sections just for the sake of it: this is pretty much the optimal sum of technical/progressive thrash served at a time when the fanbase was slowly, but surely forgetting that their favourite music could also sound serious and thoughtful without losing any of its aggressive nature.

It’s probably good that the band lasted for just this album having in mind the metamorphoses experienced by other representatives of the wave later (Depressive Age, Lost Century). But traces of it can be found both before and after: some of the musicians took part in Varix who released three demos in the early/mid-90’s the second of which (“Tribute to Fate”, 1993) is a more pristine, rough-around-the-edges, version of the album here with an accentuated progressive metal undercurrent which diminishes the edge of the guitars. Their last demo (“Harmonic Distortion”, 1995) goes over the top, but not in a good way, with long, not very carefully plotted compositions where the technical approach is sacrificed for the sake of miscalculated progressive build-ups.

In the new millennium some of the band members have given themselves another chance under the name Entente, and their first demo (“Degree of Punishment”, 2002) is first class technical/progressive thrash going more towards Artillery’s “By Inheritance” with a more overt speedy tone. Still, one never knows when the guys will start shredding in the good, now old, mind-scratching way all of a sudden; so keep your ears on the alert.