UMUR "The Experience of Horror" is the debut full-length studio album by German death/thrash metal act Assorted Heap. The album was released through 1 MF in 1991. The original vinyl version only contained 6 tracks while the CD version featured 9 tracks. I´m not sure why because the vinyl version is definitely on the shorter side with it´s 27:20 minutes long playing time and even if they had added the CD bonus tracks to the vinyl version it would still only have lasted around 37 minutes. You can´t excuse that with loss of sound quality, which was sometimes the explanation back then with vinyl albums longer than 45 minutes.

The music on "The Experience of Horror" is US influenced death/thrash (or brutal thrash metal if you will). As far as I recall it´s not often I´ve heard music like this coming from a German act. There´s not a hint of teutonic thrash here. Instead the music is aggressive and at times brutal thrash metal played with great technical skill. Acts like Dark Angel, Devastation and early Invocator come to mind. The tracks are well written, energetic and powerful and while the sound production isn´t without flaws, "The Experience of Horror" still comes off as a quality death/thrash release. I guess some tracks could have been a little more memorable, like for example the title track is, but it´s not a major issue.

"The Experience of Horror" is a rather obscure release and probably not that easy to find, but if you are a fan of late eighties/early nineties death/thrash and you are able to find a copy, I´d recommend a purchase. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.