Dethrone ‎"The Decay Of A Man" CD

The huge late-80’s thrash metal wave was an interesting phenomenon which still makes me wonder… thousands of young budding musicians rushed to secure a place under the sun for themselves with their rowdy belligerent tunes. With the style made seem lucrative and commercially-viable by a few successful teams (Metallica, Anthrax, Kreator, Megadeth, Slayer), the musicians realized that they didn’t have to sell their souls cheaply to the gods of radio-friendly poppy metal, but could still make a living, and some more, by playing something closer to their rebellious hearts… what they had to do was to choose an already established successful model, and to follow it more or less closely until they covered themselves with fortune and glory.
Alas, the illusion didn’t last very long as the bands were intelligent enough to see that wealth only went to the very chosen few, and the rest should better stick with their 9-5 jobs, and should think of music stardom only sparingly if at all. Besides, the new decade came ushering new music vogues, and judging by the acceptance those had among the audience, it made perfect sense for some of the failed thrash hordes to try and capitalize on the less demanding, easier-to-execute numetal sounds.
For the band under scrutiny here the day began with the first instalment “Let the Day Begin“, a pretty decently executed slab of Bay-Area thrash with Metallica the prime target for worship. Not much fuss generated around it, unfortunately, but the guys were determined to give themselves at least one more go with the album reviewed here. Finland was quite good in the transformational album department (Stone, Airdash, Prestige) but the case here is not one of them. It’s not cause the approach has been made too mellow and welcoming for this to even distantly pass for thrash; and it can’t really pass for post-thrash if the band’s agenda was to win over the groove lovers.
This is one of those “all over the place” recordings that became quite common for the early-90’s, largely executed by those outfits who weren’t quite happy with the settling groovy/aggro tricks, but at the same time were well aware that their initially chosen speed/thrashy stance was swiftly becoming obsolete. The middle ground between these two currents wasn’t a very comfortable to reside in as evident from the album here. Hospitable meek hits (“Hello Voice”) sit awkwardly next to more belligerent attempts at the good old speed metal (“Father’s Day”) and aggressive near-thrashy shredders (“Shadowplay”), but it’s the actual diversifiers like the funky Faith No More-sque charade "Censored Scenes" and the particularly rousing pompous parody "Confessions of a Madman" that tumble the table here, the dire situation not relieved much by frequent nods to the ballad ("Block the Sun", the heavier goofy "The Barrier Within") or by marginally better tributes to the groove ("The Decay"), the brightest light in the tunnel here being the short lead-driven instrumental "Out Through the Blue... into the Dark", a 2.5-min exemplary display of impeccable musical craftmanship.
The clean attached vocal ala Joey Belladonna (Anthrax) are by all means an asset but with a dishevelled musical delivery of the kind they can only help that much. The guys were uncertain which direction to go, and had decided to throw every idea they had available into the pot... well, the resultant very varied therapy didn’t work; it wasn’t a decay per se but it was far from the much loftier metamorphoses witnessed by their mentioned compatriots, and by other more capable adapters from other parts of the world. The battle for the throne didn’t take place simply cause our friends were only too willing to surrender it without any struggle. Why bother since nothing worked, no proficient thrashisms, no accumulations of more relevant streamlined tunes… it’s only the underground that beckoned indiscriminately, and this is where this team went… unheard, unrecognized but full of vigour and enthusiasm once upon a time when the way to the throne didn’t seem so obstacle-riddled.

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