Warthur Thrash metal seemed to hit an apex of aggression in the mid-1980s, after which many groups seemed to shift off in different divergent directions. Some went more commercial, some went more technical or complex, but very few seemed to try and make thrash metal even more aggressive than it had been on Kreator's Pleasure to Kill or Slayer's Reign In Blood; the general feeling seemed to be that if you wanted to get more extreme than that, you really should just bite the bullet and go full death metal.

Morbid Saint seem to have decided with Spectrum of Death to try and put the lie to that and see if they can take thrash metal even further, and by and large they succeed. The production mix is sometimes not brilliant, and there are points where the "crank it all up to 11!" approach gets a bit old, but it broadly succeeds in staking out a claim for the continued relevance of a more vicious, malevolent take on thrash.

Time Signature Lock up your children...

Genre: thrash metal

Originally released in 1988, Morbid Saints Spectrum of Death is definitely a cult classic which is reflected in the fact that it has been reissued a whole bunch of times, most recently by Relapse.

Despite the many reissues, the album remains, to use Relapse's wording, criminally underrated in the metal community at large. And, it should not take more than one spin for the seasoned thrasher to nod their head in acknowledgement of Relapse's description of the album. We are dealing with superb thrash metal here, folks, and the album deserves much more attention that it has been paid so far. From the first notes of 'Lock Up Your Children' to the last lines of 'Beyond the Gates of Hell' the listeners eardrums are constantly pounded by crushing riffage and fierce drums.

Blending the hyper brutal speed metal of Holy Terror with the dark and evil thrash of Slayer, throwing into the mix a pinch of Exodus' knack for writing razor sharp riffs, Morbid Saint's album really has a lot to offer the metalhead who loves the extreme metal of the 80s. Each song features a generous portion of riffs, changes, and passages as well as break-downs and build-ups. This structural complexity, despite the fact that many of the riffs are more primitive, results in music which is best described as technical thrash metal (although not reaching Dark Angel levels of madness).

The production is, as expected, raw and unpolished, this being an album from the 80s, back when they did not have all the recording technology we have today. Thus, I suspect that younger listeners will have to give the album a couple of spins to get attuned to the raw production, while older listeners will cramp up with fits of nostalgia. The important thing is, however, that you can hear what is actually going on on the album, so you can enjoy the onslaught of fierce thrash metal that is "Spectrum of Death".

Fans of old school thrash metal should definitely invest in this time bomb of evil!