adg211288 MMA Reviewer's Challenge: Album selected by Unitron

Absolute Power (1989) the debut album from US metal act Powermad, is an example of the common case of a band starting during the eighties, but not getting too far at the time, this being their only full-length album until an eventual comeback many years later with Infinite (2015).

Powermad are one band whose core genre seems to be debated a fair bit with the labels of thrash, speed and even power metal getting applied to them. While I can't speak for how their other releases may sound, on Absolute Power we find the band playing music that actually blends elements of all three, but at least initially seems to rests within the camp of speed metal. That's for the first three songs at least. Slaughterhouse, the title track and Nice Dreams are also basically textbook eighties speed metal songs comprised of semi-thrashy, fast riff patterns and plenty of lead guitar work. The vocals deliver lyrical hooks during the choruses that make the songs memorable. It's well made stuff for the style, not as abrasive as full-on thrash and not as melodic as power metal.

The odd thing is that after seemingly establishing itself as a speed metal album Absolute Power does a sudden turn in its fourth track Return From Fear and becomes more of an actual thrash metal album for the rest of the duration. There are a few touches of speed metal still to be found after this point and even a nod to US power metal, especially during some of the more high register vocal parts, but the guitars suddenly take on a more aggressive playing style in general, making the songs more hard hitting. Powermad handle the shift in style well enough (speed and thrash being closely related) but it does sound a little odd to happen three tracks in like that and has really quite thrown me regarding what the idea was? To show the evolution of their style maybe? The only thing that keeps nagging me about the album is that those early speed metal tracks tend to be a lot more memorable after the album's conclusion and it leaves me wishing they'd kept it up.

Absolute Power is an enjoyable eighties thrash/speed metal album, but I do think it could have been better with a little bit more consistency. Even just a re-ordering of the existing tracklist would have done it to spread the pure speed metal tracks out because the result Powermad have here is an album where it seems you're listening to one release then suddenly change to another one.