Maniac Within - Add Power To Spirit (CCP Records, 1995)

Okay, I didn't fall asleep, so here's another one of my 'lucky hits' in the darker corners of the web. So I googled this band, Maniac Within comes from Austria, a country musically known only for Pungent Stench, Disharmonic Orchestra or Disastrous Murmur (am I rite?), but there was another band more into thrash/death metal, the one I'm talking about here.

So they got some super obscure releases in the mid-nineties and nobody apart from Roco did have it on Discogs. But hey, that doesn't mean you can't find it on the internet, right? I found the actual page of their label, CCP Records, and it turned out they got three copies of Add Power To Spirit left, which of course I grabbed immediately. But imagine the luck I had, I mean, the page looked as if nobody did ever change anything since like 1999 or something, and so I wasn't really optimistic to even get an answer when I wrote a mail, but hey, I got the CDs, and I'm pretty sure you haven't seen one yet. :)

Intoxicate - Silent Killing (indie, 1994)

About damn fucking time that I post something new in here. But hey, summer was here and I was busy blastin' Journey and Fleetwood Mac at the lake. Haha! Uhm yeah, Intoxicate is a pretty unknown band from Switzerland. This is their first release of five in total, and surely the one to hunt as it's the only one with decent tunes on.

As most of these unknown Swiss thrash CDs, also Intoxicate's Silent Killing is hard to come by, even in the country of cheese and 24/7 snow. I was lucky to track it down, offered on a small auction site here in Switzerland, sitting lonely between common and normal CDs like Dismember or Pestilence (not talking 'bout the sound on these, only the rarity). If you're looking around the net, you still can find some of these 'lucky hits'. If I don't fall asleep, I'll post another of these lucky finds right after.

SSA - Deal With It (Assbackwards Music, 1994)

These guys from Ohio weren't exactly known .. well, I can't tell, but I guess. SSA put out their one and only full-length Deal With It in 1994 on their imaginary label Assbackwards Music. The fun fact is that SSA literally means Ass backwards. It made me chuckle a little.

But now to the music. The album starts off with a wah-wah guitar sound not expecting me all too great things. However, this turns out to be pretty great. Decent thrashing, good vocals, nice acoustic middle-part. And it goes on that way. Only anomaly has to be the last track called Sunshine, which is some sort of ultra-soft poppy grunge .. That end of the album left me somehow confused, nevermind. While I must admit it certainly isn't the most creative output, in 1994 and years after even big players in the game put out pantsy releases - Deal With It can certainly persist against, say Stomp 442 or .. Load.

Deal With It is as rare as obscure thrash can get. Well, I don't know this record for all too long but I only seen it once on auction sites, and that was the copy you're seeing here.

Critical Mass - Unholy Wars (Vampire Records, 1992)

Not much to say about this one. It's the only full-length release by Critical Mass. Just great Aussie power metal (yes, power metal for once) with hints of thrash from 1992. I really like the vocals here. However, the production is very thin (drums don't get through really, and guitars and bass are way too quiet) and hence the result is unfortunately too passive and somehow harmless.

Unholy Wars appeared on Vampire Records, a small label which only had three releases. A black metal record, a death metal record, and this one. The one shown here is the hardest to come by as the others can be bought several times on auction sites right now. I strongly suggest hunting this down however, even if it should be a hard thing to do.

Creeper - Creeper (indie, 1992)

Ladies and gentlemen, here's what could be America's best kept secret in thrash metal. And a hell of a rarity too! Creeper from Arizona, Florida did one full-length in 1992 (they were never heard again afterwards) play a midpaced type of thrash metal with some cool, refreshing ideas here and there. That being some jazzy drum fills or the vocals of the song Enslaved being sung through a guitar amp.

Musically and also vocally could be considered Metallica-worship, even though some of the riffs here are definitely heavier. I don't really like the production though. The drums sound way too polished and machinesque. Nevertheless, it's a interesting addition to your collection. Come on, hunt it down!

Morbid Vision - The Firstborn (indie, 1998)

In 1998, thrash metal was definitely an abandoned field for most bands. The biggest part turned to groove metal in the mid-nineties when Pantera and Sepultura ('Chaos A.D.'-era) reigned supreme. Very few exceptions however still knew their roots and kept playing classic thrash. One of these surely is Morbid Vision hailing from Denmark. It's not really known when these guys appeared and when they split-up but The Firstborn from 1998 seems to be their one and only release. And it's like 20 minutes of 1988, kept inside a time capsule and unleashed ten years later.

There's many things I like but also about the same amount of things I don't like about The Firstborn. These guys surely knew how to play their instruments and the ideas were bursting in these four fast-forward thrash tracks. However, the drums are way too loud for my taste (even for me as a drummer), especially during the parts with the double bass the rest of the music seems to be drowned by the sound of the drums. Nevertheless it's impressive work on the drums. Second thing I don't really like is the mix of the vocals, it's too far in the background in comparison to the instruments. So basically, drums are too loud, vocals too quiet.

This EP might not exactly be the most known piece of underground thrash, that's mostly because it isn't available anymore. It doesn't pop up on eBay and stuff that often either. If you should come across a copy in the future, don't hesitate to get it! Might be the last time you'll see it ..

Through The Flesh - Nails (SJC White Wolf Music, 1990)

Funnily I know this small and totally unknown band for years. Funny because I digged into the underground of thrash and death metal only since a few years, certainly after I got to know Through The Flesh. I accidentally clicked on an eBay auction in 2010 (I think?), and suddenly was attracted to the somehow goofy artwork (look at that hand ..) and the complete obscurity this small record seemed to come out from. Seller stated it would be thrash metal so I began to seek after it without even knowing how it sounds like (there weren't and still aren't any samples all around the net). Then about a month ago (since 2010, imagine!) I saw it on discogs rather cheap (still more than double the price it was on Ironforce, so nice business made I guess) so I had to get it, and yeah .. now I have it.

Musically this was a huge let-down for me. It has four tracks, two have a somehow odd acoustic intro and then kick in. And also only half of the songs have hints .. I say hints .. of rather mediocre, mid-paced thrash. One track even has some rap metal in it. All in all it seems thrown together and the band wanted to put as many ideas as they had into the four songs. Less is sometimes more, I guess.

They have a second full-length from 1991 called Wounds, also on SJC White Wolf Music, which seems to be their own label, I'm searching that one as well.

Sadistikal - Cuestion De Tiempo (Frost Bite, 1995)

A friend offered me this hidden gem for trade lately. As I listened some samples on the tube I really liked it. It quite reminded me of country neighbors Sepultura from Brazil .. oh sorry, totally forgot to say Sadistikal hails from Argentina, a country that isn't exactly known for bringing out lot of metal. But certainly there was something going on and Cuestion De Tiempo is still a quite interesting thrash/death metal record and the band members are surprisingly capable of playing their instruments and building cool song structures.

This little secret was released on the small label Frost Bite which also released the quite well known death metal discography from Vibrion, also from Argentina. I have no idea how hard Sadistikal is to come by as I have absolutely no references for it, but if not too rare or expensive, it would definitely be worth getting.

Neophobia - Fear Of The Future / Nothing (Warhead Records, 1993/1996)

Some more Aussie goodness, this time with the discography of Sydney's thrashers Neophobia. These two CDs on Warhead Records gained a big hype in recent yeats and prices increased rapidly. While the first track on Fear of the Future (War!) is clearly their masterpiece in the vein of Nuclear Assault or Defiance (most of the rest is mediocre in my opinion), they managed to do a great follow-up with Metallica-like thrash metal and some hints of modern elements. The songs even tend do be memorable at times, a thing only War! manages to do on their debut album.

These two Aussie CDs can be considered some of the more obscure ones in the thrash metal genre. Hence they rarely pop up anywhere and if they do you have to accept the conditions of the cds. Both have wavy back inserts, due to bad quality .. I don't have the patience to search for copies in better shape though so yeah, whatever.