Epidemic "Artificial Peace" CD Digipack

These warriors appeared at the end of the 80’s in order to stop the ascension of the country’s prime thrash, and even metal overall if you like, force Flames. Yeah, someone had to stop the fiery horde who had accumulated four full-lengths by the end of the decade, and looked quite confident into entering the next one. I sure respect Fames, and still listen to their output from time to time, but I’ve always doubted their actual merits, and I believe that with the proper rivalry back then they may have been seriously impeded on the road to stardom.
The other, less disputable truth is that this 5-tracker here easily beats anything created by Flames. This is a smattering thrash/death hybrid with overt technical pretensions, a fascinating reminder of early works of the style like Incubus’ “Serpent temptation” and Nocturnus’ “The Key” (minus the keyboard sweeps of that one). The guys unleash their creativity from the get-go with the marvellous all-instrumental lead-driven intro, and although they get carried away at times with the odd more violent bash (the “Pleasure to Kill” worship "Addiction"), nothing can stand on the way of consummate exhibitions of musical mastery like "Waiting The Execution”, a sweeping melo/tech-death/thrasher with melodic hooks and entangled configurations galore. The main theme from the cult horror film “Halloween” rises at the start of the title-track, later giving way to standout intricate shredding and breath-taking atmospheric, balladic respites those two sides creating a contrast seldom achieved before or after. No quietudes on "Religious Greed" the guys lashing with more passion here, still finding plenty of time to befuddle the audience with dashes of entangled rhythms and hectic time-shifts.
Wow, the neighbours did have some excellent practitioners back in those days; I found this marvel some time in the late-90’s, and spent days listening to it. Perfectly conformed with the more demanding tastes of the time, this gem should have paved the way handsomely for its creators if they had probably resided somewhere in the West… alas, frictions with Flames (a long story) put the band out of circulation before the decade was over. On top of that, their bass player and vocalist Efthimis Karadimas left once the EP here was completed, but at least in the latter case few should complain as he founded the behemoth Nightfall, arguably the most celebrated Greek metal act.
So the guys fell from grace untimely, but not before they paid a pretty cool tribute to the 90’s vogues with “Industrial”, a confident post-thrash effort, with just a tad of industrial though, with stylish more technical nuances ala Meshuggah on top of other mechanistic niceties. Then they changed their name to Descend, probably to avoid the continuous bickering with the Flames, but this very short-lived enterprise only produced one album (“Beyond Thy Realm of Throes”) of not very exciting, generic melo-thrash/death. Sad, this turn of events cause once upon a time it seemed as though this epidemic would spread all the way to the very top of Mount Olympus.

Sample: