Time Signature CoVinyl Part 2

So, when I found a 1990 Under One Flag pressing of this album in near mint condition, I had to buy it simply because of the hilarious cover artwork. The cartoonish front cover and the overly 90s back cover just screamed crossover at me.

Crossover it is, but it leans much more towards metal than towards punk. And it's actually pretty good stuff for the most part. The tracks on this album are musically much better than I expected. They are well-performed and well-composed. At times, some of the melodies sound intentionally silly, while at other times the guitarists almost venture into neo-classical virtuosic territory. Apart from the mock ballad 'Woman With The Dirty Feet' (obviously a jab at pretty much every late 80s glam metal ballad ever), all the songs are fast-paced thrashers with a couple if midtempo songs every now and then. There are a couple of punky elements too such as the chorus of 'I Fuck the Violence (And I'm Sure I'm right)' and this balance works very well.

In terms of musicianship and songwriting as such, this is all good stuff. Everything is super tight, and Litza and Popcorn (WFT?!?) are excellent at what they do for sure. The songs are also well-written and much more care has been taken to make the this sound good than one might expect. Production-wise, the album also sounds very good. The guitars have a slight Acid Reign feel to them, and the overall sound packs quite a punch. The vocals aren't great to be honest; they're not terrible either, but I think they might be grating to some listeners. The vocals are delivered with such a thick accent that, without the lyrics sheet, it's pretty much impossible to understand what the hell the guy is saying. And, you know what, the lyrics sheet doesn't help much because the lyrics are for the most part nonsensical (unintentionally, I think), and it doesn't make things better that half of the lyrics are missing for a couple of the songs. While this will probably annoy some listeners, I find it all a bit charming to be honest.

Overall, this is a fun and interesting listen. If you check it out, I think you'll find that it's much better than you might expect, but you may be taken aback by the odd vocals and the chaotic nightmare that is the lyrics (or you might love it to pieces). Still, overall, this is a very good album and it's definitely worth grabbing a copy of it if you come across one - especially if you like early 90s crossover thrash.

UMUR "Are You a Rebel?" is the debut full-length studio album by Polish thrash metal/crossover act Acid Drinkers. The album was released through Under One Flag in September 1990. Acid Drinkers was founded in 1986, but was put on hold after only a few months of existence as vocalist/bassist Tomasz "Titus" Pukacki was drafted for the Polish army and stayed there two years. After his army service ended, Acid Drinkers was reactivated.

If it wasn´t made abundantly clear from looking at the cartoonish cover artwork, I´ll tell you that Acid Drinkers isn´t the most serious band out there. They play a predominantly fast-paced thrash metal/crossover style featuring some reather silly lyrics and at times also melodies that are close to the ones you´ll find in children´s music. Musically they actually remind me a bit of the thrash metal/crossover equivalent to Macabre (of course without the gory image and extreme vocals). Songtitles like "I Fuck the Violence (I'm Sure I'm Right)", "Moshin' in the Nite", and "Woman With the Dirty Feet" further enhance their silly image. The latter actually sticks out a bit, as it opens with what sounds like a parody on Guns N' Roses, complete with a pretty good Axl Rose imitation.

Other than that track this is fast-paced, energetic, and actually very well played thrash metal/crossover. These guys are definitely not amateurs, and deliver their music with great skill and conviction (great playing rhythm section, and the guitar solos deserve a mention too). The only issue here is the vocals. They feature a very strong accent, which means I have a very hard time decoding what is being said. Other than that the vocal performance is decent although Tomasz "Titus" Pukacki doesn´t have the most interesting or distinct sounding voice.

The sound production is professional, powerful, and detailed. It´s a sound production where you can easily hear what every instrument is playing. Sometimes to the point where it sounds slightly disjointed, but personally I think it sounds great. "Are You a Rebel?" is upon conclusion a bit of a mixed bag. It´s enjoyable to a certain extent, but the songwriting is slightly one-dimensional, and the vocal do drag my rating down a bit too. Therefore a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.