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.

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.

Animus - A Dead Life (indie, 1992)

Some say this ultra-obscure cd from Australia is limited to 100 copies. I have no idea if that's true, all I know is that I never saw this cd in the last few years except once, $1299 buy it now on eBay. Ended early, supposedly for a high three range sum. There aren't any sound samples on the net (about time I upload some) and practically any infos about band or this demo release. On metal-archives it's listed as power/thrash metal, but this cd isn't exactly that easy to categorize.

It definitely is far from your average Aussie metal. Some blastbeats (yes, blastbeats!) here, some death grunts there, then a power metal ballad. At first sight this seems pretty randomly thrown together, but .. although not very memorable or outstanding, this four song-demo is quite enjoyable and a nice, obscure but also expensive (if you'll find it at all) addition to the completists' thrash metal collection.

Mass Confusion - Confusion Intrusion (Sidesplitter Records, 1990)

Yes, yes, YES! Finally could I get my hands on another copy of this Aussie thrash gem. It was about six years ago, when I stumbled across this CD on a local auction site for peanuts. I paid like 15$, imagine! However, I was dumb enough to sell it two years later for a fair price. I regretted it immediately. So the search for a copy in good shape and for a good price began.. and it lasted until very recently when I found it again. Man, was it a great feeling to unpack the parcel and listen to this forgotten classic again. These are 11 tracks of fast, fun thrash metal in the vein of Nuclear Assault and vocals similar to Vio-Lence or Anthrax. For a indie release this obscure it is very good and memorable, and the ending track 'Bowel Growl' could as well be the most hilarious fart-song ever written.

A big reason why my search lasted so long was the strict limitation of 1000 copies - half of them are cds only, and the other 500 copies are complete with inserts. So you could say it's limited to 500 pieces because who wants a cd only .. It also took me so long because everytime it popped up on auction sites, it was sold for ridiculous prices in the 300$-range. The price I paid was also very high for my standards, but it was definitely worth it. And who knows how long it would have took me to find it again.