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.

Capharnaüm - Capharnaüm (Kill Riff, 1993)

France was never really known for having a great metal scene (okay, maybe black metal) and that wasn't really different back in the day. So Capharnaüm from France is already kind of a band of its own. This trio as it was in 1993 plays thrash metal, the very generic kind. The sound is very thin, but that's kind of understandable with only one guitar and one bass guitar. However, what makes them drown in the sea of early 90s-thrash metal is obviously the lack of ideas. Their sound overall isn't memorable at all and you seem to have heard everything they're playing somewhere else already.

What's still impressing is that such small bands put that much effort in their music and band that they release a full-length that is still after all these years a quite sought-after thrash metal cd. Even if the sound isn't the best this self-released debut has its own charme for what it is. It has a cool cover artwork and several songs that shows the band trying their best. On my copy there is even a dedication from a band member to the former owner of the cd (don't know yet if that bothers me or not). The cd was limited to 600 pieces but pops up from time to time. If you're a completist or just out for a obscure, forgotten thrash metal record, this isn't the worst you can get.

Legia - Legia (indie, 1993)

Sweden is pretty well known for their metal scene back in the day and even nowadays. The death metal scene is legendary, when it comes to thrash however, most people shake their heads. Even I struggle when I should name a few Swedish examples of thrash metal immediately. If you dig deeper then there seemed to be a quite nice little scene in the underground. Rosicrucian, Epitaph or Physichal Attraction just to name a few. And obviously there were more, even some I never heard of until recently. Legia is one of them. They formed in 1990 and released two demos before their self-titled debut in 1993. I have to say it is very good for a possibly very small and private release. It's far more memorable than most of the obscured private thrash releases from the 90s. It's intelligent and fast Bay Area-influenced with Hetfield-vocals.

Until a year I had no idea this band existed until I saw this cd on a picture on a forum. A guy uploaded a song on youtube and it was pretty nice Metallica-influenced thrash. So the hunt began, and it went on until very recently when I managed to fetch a copy for a very fair price from a guy on discogs.

Sarcasm - In-Sect (indie, 1993)

Sarcasm is another Swiss thrash band that everyone forgot pretty fast - or never even knew. Because In-Sect was their only release and this mini-cd is limited to 300 pieces for promotional issues only. The cover artwork is pretty badass I have to say, however the music delivered here is pretty generic thrash. It's mostly mid-paced thrash with hardcore influenced grunts and gang shouts. The riffs don't really stick out and the songs in general aren't very memorable either. The vocals somehow remind me of early Sepultura, and the riffwork could be compared to 'Product of Society'-era Defiance, however Sarcasm never build up a quality sound nearly as good as the two mentioned bands.

For completists and collectors this might be a nice addition to the collection. However, with it's limitation to only 300 copies In-Sect is pretty hard to come by. In recent times this fetched quite high prices (for example around 380$ on discogs! Whoever paid that price ..) If you wanna take a listen to it, there's a song sample on youtube.

Burial - Relinquished Souls (West Virginia, 1993)

In the thanks list of this booklet it is written 'DEATH and MASSACRE for the godly inspiration' - wow, Burial from the Netherlands were honest, and they wrote a little death metal masterpiece with Relinquished Souls. It's like the record after From Beyond that Massacre never wrote. Everything from vocals to the guitars and the drumming screams US death metal, and it's done fuckin' well! Unfortunately Relinquished Souls remained their only release after the defunction of their label West Virginia Records,

Despite the fact that this album saw a re-release not too long ago the original press on West Virginia still fetches unbelievable prices on the internet. (600+ $ from the banana guy) My copy here is in great shape except the punch hole in the booklet which bothers me everytime I look at it, damn! Oh well, maybe one day I'll get a flawless copy for a good price .. maybe.

Caustic - Malicious (MMP Records, 1993)

First bands that come to mind when talking about thrash metal from my lovely home Switzerland has to be Coroner or Messiah. There were more bands, more obscure, but nonetheless great examples of metal done right. One example is Caustic. They formed around 1991 and released a first EP a year after. In 1993, they released their first full-length Malicious, a merciless mix of thrash and death metal with influences ranging from Slayer, Kreator to early Sepultura. I love this record! The vox are very similar to Tom Araya, not necessarily a bad thing, and there's even a little charm when hearing that Caustic hails from Switzerland (the singer has a little accent ..)

This record is hyper-rare and very expensive nowadays, released in only 500 copies on the small Swiss label MMP Recordings. Not even the band itself has copies of it anymore. And at last, an advice to you: instead of searching years and then spending a small fortune for it - you should get the recent official reissue on Dark Symphonies. Get it here.