God Save the Scene

Tyrranicide is one of those obscure bands that I spent a lot of time knowing very little about other than that I thought their lone studio LP offering “God Save The Scene” was a decent listen that complemented my intake of obligatory Metallica and Megadeth as a metal head youth living in a world of Kurt Cobain and other assorted unwashed, grungy types. Lyrics weren’t really a high priority in my mind so I didn’t really pay much attention to them, and with a band like this why would I? What does a 13 year old kid know about politics anyway? So what entered my ears was a heavily punk infused version of what a number of bands I was listening to from California at the time.

Upon returning to this long forgotten album almost 2 decades later, and armed with the experience of seeing some old interview footage via Al Gore’s invention, I began to understand why this band had a hard time being taken serious. The contradiction of naming yourself after a misspelling of a word denoting a violent means of political revolution and then writing songs with lyrics that insist that non-violent revolution is the only way to go should already send up red flags that there’s a good amount of 2+2=5 going on here, and that’s really only the tip of the iceberg. The lyrics all but reek of an unflattering mix of self-conscious resentment towards their own scene and a juvenile form of political correctness that almost becomes Chris Barnes’ less flattering venture with Six Feet Under a decade before they would happen.

Consistency in message is a pretty difficult thing to get past for most, and thus regardless to how well these kids do at putting their own spin on the genre and no matter how inventive and powerful their riffs are, their fate was pretty well sealed with or without the eventual demise of the 80s. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that the band’s efforts are an all out crapshoot, and this album is really nowhere near being that. What is contained here is a pretty solid tribute to the Bay Area sound from a group of suburban kids who probably didn’t see most of the rougher sides of that scene. There’s a good helping of Suicidal Tendencies at work here, to the point that this sounds more like a crossover band that grew its hair out longer and tried doing a full out thrashing ensemble but didn’t quite pull themselves out of their old habits.

The raw elements at play here are pretty inventive and at times glorious, exuding a sense of progression that is well married to the orthodoxies of ruined necks and blinding grooves of the genre. Tempos rapidly skip back and forth between brooding frenzies that conjure up images of Slayer and Dark Angel, and then slower sections that mesh a Metallica-like crunch with a Discharge attitude. There are a few gimmicky acoustic lines thrown in, and even a little guitar feedback manipulation that mimics the sound of a flat-lining person in a hospital bed towards the end of “Pull The Plug”. The production is a bit low quality, even by the standards of lower fidelity 80s recordings such as Slayer’s output at the time, and the vocals generally don’t go beyond the typical James Hetfield worship melded with gang shouts that goes with the style, but it all works well.

Much like with life, Tyrranicide is a band that involves wading through a good amount of nonsense in order to be enjoyed, but there was definitely some potential in this band that didn’t really have a chance to develop very much. Had the band taken a less overtly preachy route with their lyrics and perhaps even dabbled in a more eloquent delivery in that regard, they may have gone a bit further, then again, if the recording industry hadn’t dropped the entire style from existence the 90s may have been a happier time. But if one is simply hungry for more thrashing mayhem and wants to delve into the obscure, this band might be worth a try, just know the risks before getting caught repeating the lyrics in public.

'God Save The Scene' is really a forgotten gem from the late thrash scene. Intelligent lyrics, moshing riffs, badass attitude and a lot of catchiness to be found here. It has a punkish feeling here and there with it's simple riffs and gang vocals, it's an album which is almost crossover but tends more into thrash metal style. Quite addictive album also, I remember a period when I listened to it twice almost each day, for several weeks.

We start off with with 'Hide Under White' which is is about the stupidity of the KKK, racism etc. If I identified it well, it begins with a recording of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" famous speech, then the guitars slowly fades in and the band shouts "time has come for racism to die!" and it keeps flows and then it settles down and continue with a moderate heavy riffing and the vocals joins with a lot of anger and heat and the song gets speed ahead and becomes headbangable as usual. Very intense track, with a positive message and tons of energy. 'Think For Yourself' is another highlight, quite intense riffing and aggressive vocals, flowing pretty well and has quite decent lead guitar work. 'One That I Am' reminds me 'Testament' a little bit in the versers, it also has some cool bass breaks and catchy riffing, you just can't stop the headbang! Well, almost. There is a little clean passage which chilling down the aggression, but then it continues to kicks asses until it overs.

In conclusion: this is a great album, short and enjoyable one. Even that most of the songs doesn't changes too much, it doesn't becomes repetitive for a bit and each song stands for it's own. Simply, if you like thrash go get it now!