UMUR "Trust" is the 3rd full-length studio album by German thrash metal act Baphomet. The album was released through Massacre Records in 1994. It´s the successor to "Latest Jesus" from 1992. "Trust" features the exact same lineup who recorded "Latest Jesus (1992)". Thomas Hertler (vocals), Gernot Kerrer (guitars), Hansi Bieber (bass), and Manuel Reichert (drums).

It´s safe to say that neither "No Answers (1991)" nor "Latest Jesus (1992)" will go down in heavy metal history as the most original nor the most interesting releases. In fact both are mediocre at best. So the good news when listening to "Trust" is that the band have upped their game a little. It´s still pretty generic thrash metal with a raspy aggressive vocalist in front (he occasionally uses a semi-growling vocal style too), but I spotted at least a couple of pretty killer riffs during the albums playing time, and that´s a major upgrade from the two predecessors. The sound production is also half decent, but why Baphomet again have opted for a thin clicky bass sound is beyond me. It was a pretty big issue on the two predecessors, and while the phrase "only fools make mistakes twice" sadly applied to "Latest Jesus (1992)", it´s a bit frustrating to have to add "thrice" when speaking of "Trust".

The songwriting has thankfully improved, and the material on the 9 track, 39:11 minutes long album is generally decent enough, but never above standard quality for the genre. So while "Trust" is by far Baphomet´s highest quality release, it´s still only decent for the genre as a whole and a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is fair.

UMUR "Latest Jesus" is the 2nd full-length studio album by German thrash metal act Baphomet. The album was released through Massacre Records in September 1992. It´s the successor to "No Answers" from 1991. "Latest Jesus" features the exact same lineup who recorded "No Answers (1991)". Thomas Hertler (vocals), Gernot Kerrer (guitars), Hansi Bieber (bass), and Manuel Reichert (drums).

The music on the album is pretty basic thrash metal with some raspy aggressive vocals in front. A few times during the playing time, lead vocalist Thomas Hertler delivers a more extreme death metal type growl, but that´s not the dominant vocal style. Baphomet occasionally add keyboards to their sound for effect, and while it´s pleasant enough distraction from the rather monotone thrash featured on the album, it´s nothing too interesting.

The material on the 8 track, 39:56 minutes long album is generally not very interesting nor is it memorable beyond the album´s playing time. In fact I dare use the word mediocre regarding just about everthing featured on the album. The musicianship is not more than decent, the songwriting is unremarkable, and the sound production thin sounding. The bass features quite the hideous powerless sound, and the same can be said about the drums. The guitar tone also lacks rawness and power, and the vocals...well the vocals are actually the most interesting thing about this release, and they aren´t even that great.

When that is said "Latest Jesus" is actually a step up from "No Answers (1991)", which was an even less appealing album, but I still can´t give it more than a 2.5 star (50%) rating. There are simply so much better music out there, that this album is better left to obscurity.

UMUR "No Answers" is the debut full-length studio album by German thrash metal act Baphomet. The album was released through Massacre Records in 1991. Lead vocalist Thomas Hertler is actually the founder of Massacre Records, which these days are among the elite European metal labels. In addition to this, their debut album, Baphomet released two more albums before disbanding.

The music on "No Answers" is thrash metal with an occasional brutal edge. When it´s most raw I´d call the music death/thrash, but most of the time it´s just raw thrash metal. The band are decent musicians but neither the instrumentalists nor lead vocalist Thomas Hertler stand out as contributing anything extraordinary. The sound production isn´t that great either and if you add to that some rather questionable songwriting which is neither catchy upon first listen nor memorable in the long run, "No Answers" comes off as a rather redundant release. When the band are most aggressive and direct are when they function the best, but unfortunately they often opt to make use of some awkward shifts between sections and some powerless beats. I guess those elements are included for variation, but they seldom work in favour of the music.

"No Answers" isn´t a terrible release, but it´s damn close to being one. I´ll play nice and call it mediocre and unremarkable instead. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is me being nice again.