Demo 1990

The first time I came across this act was ages ago, I don’t think I was even born back then… now seriously, the main reason why I wanted to get a hold of them was certainly the name; Terrorist, come on, this must be some wild unbridled death/thrash, more death than thrash, to my uneducated estimations at the time…

what was more interesting was that the guy I got it from had no idea what it was, I mean style-wise. He had forgotten what it sounded like… not a very promising introduction by any means, with no recollections of the musical escapades within in the fans’ minds, and hearts, and souls; must be something pretty generic and undistinguishable.

Ironically, the guy was right; cause to remember this, and to try to describe it adequately in existing terms are two not very easy tasks. Suffice it to add, this wasn’t the wild unbridled thrash/death hybrid that I was anticipating. These terrorists here had by all means voted to terrorize the audience, but what tools and devices had they selected for the purpose…

centred around the former The Accused guitarist Andy Massey, this obscure outfit only managed this 4-tracker which beginning is pretty bland, “Detonate the Charge” being just an intense 2-min hardcore outburst with semi-declamatoty/semi-shouty punky vocals. Nothing mind-boggling at this early stage, but comes “Rite to Die” and all the preconceived notions about the band’s style go out the window, this piece a totally surreal shredfest, a bizarre one-of-a-kind combination of intense thrash/proto-death, a very proficiently executed poignant balladic passage, a nice short melodic lead section, and super-technical twisted riff-salads that will easily make Atheist, Hellwitch, and Realm envious.

A showdown of the highest order that will largely leave the listener stupefied whose state will remain unchanged for “Tar”, a meandering technical thrasher of Midas Touch and Coroner-esque proportions with disorienting tempo changes, a few superb balladic thrown-ins again adding more to the perplexity which still manages to acquire some semblance of normality on the fast-paced skirmish near the end. “The Enmity” plays around with the ballad again at first creating a fairy tale-like atmosphere before the bass interferes rudely, inaugurating one of the most unusual alternations to ever grace these ears, between angular surgical Mekong Delta-sque riffing and an abrupt quiet etude, both sides taking turns for a while until the calmer one drops and the guys indulge in absolutely stupendous technical thrashing with surging gallops intercepting the highly-stylish rifforamas, not to mention the supreme virtuoso leads towards the end.

A very unorthodox psychotic, nearly stream-of-consciousness-like approach to the good old metal we have here, one that may indeed be hard to remember after just one, and maybe even second, listen due to its very eventful, plain chaotic at times, character, but one that should be revisited regularly by those who want to trace the roots of technical/progressive metal down to the very underground foundations. Cause this is a truly visionary work of surreal art, save for the more linear first cut, which reveals an enormous potential seeping underneath that may have been more fully realised as reportedly the band had a lot more material composed, one that never found the way to the studio, and respectively didn’t create destructive competition to their compatriots Atheist and Hellwitch again, but also Vacant Grave, Nocturnus, Revenant, Death… and that was probably for the better, if you think of it, as who knows how many of those acts would have been completely overshadowed by these schizophrenic, and yet utterly compelling sounds.

The guys are back in the game, very recently at that, and even if they just vote to release this already available material, without embarking on any new recording endeavours, they can rest assured that there will be quite a few fans lining up for these arcane, hopefully equally puzzling and eccentric, scrolls.