RESURRECTIONS
Unearthing the latest metal reissues
BRITISH THRASH NEVER attained the same level of excitement as its American, Brazilian or even German counterparts, but reissues of XENTRIX’S Kin [7] and For Whose Advantage? (Cherry Red) [8] shows the scene is long overdue a rediscovery. Remastered and souped up to appeal to modern revivalist sensibilities, Xentrix hold their own with seriously fun, energetic grooves. Similarly geographically challenged, Virginia’s TWISTED TOWER DIRE were on entirely the wrong continent to be championing traditional heavy metal via the medium of power metal cheese in the early 00s. Crest Of The Martyrs Demos [5] strips their sound to the bare essentials and is perfect for fans of Sanhedrin or Wolftooth who want that rootsy trad-metal sound, but is hardly going to convert the apathetic and certainly won’t worry the likes of Powerwolf or Sabaton.
On the more extreme scale of things, we have early 90s Floridian death/thrashers SOLSTICE. Granted, it’s not one of their vintage records, but 2009’s To Dust [7] still sizzles with that Floridian crossover of death/thrash that made the scene so utterly magnificent in the first place. With a title like Only Tools And Corpses [7], GOREROTTED were never playing at being intellectual powerhouses – instead they offer death/grind on a gloriously dumb, fun platter.
The real gold star goes to THERION, however, the reissue of the three-album run of 1992’s Beyond Sanctorum [7], 1993’s Symphony Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas [9] and 1995’s Lepaca Kliffoth (Hammerheart) [8]
is an exercise in evolutionary leaps that would make Darwin weak in the knees. Symphony Masses remains the crown jewel; the band’s stylistic journey can range from down-and-nasty death metal right into pendulous epic doom without batting an eye. Even so, Lepaca…
offers a fascinating insight into the developing world of symphonic metal, incorporating elements that would two years later become staples of the genre with the advent of Nightwish and Within Temptation. They weren’t named for one of extreme metal’s OG innovators for nothing, that’s for sure.
RICH HOBSON