Stephen
Try imagining a portion of early Megadeth, Kreator, and Nuclear Assault mixed in one big bowl and you'll get an obvious picture of Atrophy's sound. "Violent By Nature" is their last album as the band decided to fold the cards after the leading songwriter, Chris Lykins, left the music business to pursue medical degree.
The band presented a solid album consisted of nine high quality tracks. Almost all of them are great except "Process of Elimination" and "In Their Eyes" are the only average tracks here. Some of my fave here are "Puppies And Friends", the title track, "Slipped Through The Cracks", "Right To Die", and "Forgotten But Not Gone". The deadly combo of Lykins/Skowron's riffage pattern and solos were displayed in tracks like "Puppies", "Violent", and "Things Change", but I believe the greatest tune here is "Forgotten But Not Gone". The fast-paced neckwrecking rhythm combined with dynamic riffs and tempo change turned out to be their strongest composition.
Atrophy is one of the less-known thrash bands with an applauding technical quality. A shame they didn't go far and I don't think there'll be a reunion soon as most of the band members are concentrating on their non-music business. It used to be hard to look for this album but the reissue version had came out in 2006 with bonus tracks so for old-school thrash fans, this is an essential buy and no reason to skip this fantastic album.