Agony "The First Defiance" CD

Unofficial Under One Flag version released in 2013 or later. The exact release date is unknown.

The painting used as cover art is "The Great Day of His Wrath" (1853) by British painter John Martin.

- Recorded between August-September 1987 at Silence Studios, Koppom, Värmland, Sweden.

To me it sounds like a fairly hodge-podge mix of the big 4; there’s some of those Slayer style harmonies, a bit of Megadeth in the stop start riffing, a pinch of Metallica in the catchy melodies, and, er, probably some Anthrax in most of the bad parts of the album. It’s not the greatest thing ever but some of the songs are pretty cool. "Mass Manipulation" is a cool song with lots of Megadeth worship in the fast, crunching riffs, "Deadly Legacy" with it’s speed metal intro and simple, fast and enjoyable riffing- all with a rather cool chorus tacked on in there, while "Storm of the Apocalypse" has a good time ripping off "Creeping Death"’s intro before kicking into some rather cool thrashing verses. It’s all supported by a decent enough vocalist and a competent rhythm section. You could say it ticks all the boxes for a competent if not outstanding band; decent guitarists, fairly faceless drummer and bassist, vocalist that doesn’t really get in the way of the songs.
I dunno, I doubt these guys were going for some super complex, avant-garde thrash. I imagine they just wanted to write stuff that was catchy, heavy and had some cool riffs, so it’s hard to really downrate them for not pulling out something strange or trying really hard to distinguish themselves. They knew what their goal was, they went for it and they did a decent enough job at it. Yeah, this album isn’t a Dark Angel style riff fest and it’s not as catchy as Ride the Lightning, but it’s fairly fast and fairly catchy, full of energy and enjoyable enough. I guess the worst thing about this album is that like most other smaller tier thrash bands the lead guitarist is rather terrible; succumbing to the usual temptations of whammy bar and pinch harmonic abuse. It’s some seriously forgettable stuff, which is a shame as the rhythm guitarist is pretty tight, even mixing up the fairly simple riffing with some surprising odd time riffs here and there ("Shadow of Fear").
Overall this is a simple and decent enough thrash record which doesn’t really distinguish itself from the pack but is still an enjoyable record that goes well with beer and some good times. Not worth paying $200 for on ebay or anything, but if you happen to see it cheap anywhere then picking it up wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...