VISITÖR formed in the Orange County area of California in 1989 and honed their chops for several years before recording two three-song demos in 1992 and 1993. With the lineup of Kurt Schultz (vocals), Joey Brown and Rob Skyler (guitars), E.K. Wright (bass), and Tony Stanley (drums), the group then entered For the Record recording studio in Orange, CA to track their 10-song debut album with engineer Eric Garten (Mind Over Four, Armed Forces, etc.).
Self-released on CD in 1993, Visitör put forth a high-quality form of the meaty yet melodic thrash that had been gaining momentum at that time, with a vocal range that allowed the material to branch out toward a more adventurous range of diversity that should appeal to fans of bands such as Heathen, Sanctuary, or Realm. Promoting the release, VISITÖR shared the stage with Testament, Savatage, Lizzy Borden, and others; and two of the album's tracks appeared on a compilation of Orange County-based hardcore and metal bands called Orange Crunch, released by Lethal Records.
Long out-of-print, original copies of the album have sold for $200 or more, and VISITÖR released a one-time repress of the disc in 2010 to combat its rampant bootlegging. So now, nearly 25 years later, Divebomb Records is proud to present Visitör in its ultimate form—including an unreleased bonus track from 2010 called "Masters of Nations." Fully remastered by Jamie King at The Basement Recording, the booklet will include original cover art, archival photographs, and complete lyrics. For the fans, by the fans!
We all know that it's really hard to come by actually good bands that are no longer active and only released a full-length or just a couple of demos. Most of these bands have split up because their music wasn't good enough to have their breakthrough. This is the main reason I can't seem to understand why Visitör broke up while they released probably the best thrash metal album since 1990.
I'm personally not the biggest fan of power/thrash, but obviously, there are some astonishingly talented bands in this subgenre. Take this band for example. The first song P.I.T. starts off with some drumming that caught my attention right away, but I wasn't ready what came next. I'm pretty sure that the vocalist is a superhuman with his insanely powerful, soulful and high-pitched vocals. He sings out some crazy high notes, but he can also keep the songs flowing when he has to go back to the dirtier and thrashier sound. He gets complemented with the mid-tempo galloping riffs of the song which ends up being perfect thanks to all this musical professionalism that they are delivering.
Note that we are only one song into the album and I'm already blown away. Enviromental Impact is dissecting a serious topic with some seriously heavy guitar work. The title track, on the other hand, is even better than P.I.T. was. The riff is probably the catchiest one you will ever hear from a true thrash metal band from the 90s. Guess what? The vocals are just as crazy as ever. Dreams starts out as a power ballad and it is so beautifully emotional that I was hoping it would last longer (we are talking about an already 5 minutes long track), but what makes it even better is that it turns into a blasting, high-pitched, headbanging track around the half of the song. If you are wondering if this could get any better, let me tell you, IT DOES. Near the end of the song, we get probably the most shredding guitar solo on the entire album.
While I could talk about each song detailed like this, I think it's better if I just mention a few more outstanding moments. America's Demise has an insanely catchy riff with some layered vocals in the chorus. Johhny Law is a bit more rock 'n' roll oriented with its silliness, but it's great song nonetheless. Innocent (Until Proven Guilty) makes up for the silliness with its really serious subject complemented with some serious songwriting talent. The riffs are just out of this world. The bass on the entire album is there to support the other instruments and I must admit it does a damn fine job at it.
There is only one track that isn't perfect (unlike the rest of this near-flawless record). This track would be Thunderboltz which starts off with a nasty riff, but I feel like it doesn't really go anywhere. Regardless, the (more subtle) vocals and the drums are there to support it so it still ends up being a great track. This is where I would say something about bad mixing or shitty production, but this is on par with better-known thrash acts even though this is an independent release (!!!).
Overall this band reminds me of one of my favorite thrash bands, Forbidden with its creative songwriting. It's really a shame that they broke up and only released this record and 2 demos (and those only have songs from this album), but what's even more heartbreaking is that nobody seems to know about the existence of this record. Do yourself a favor and buy this record as soon as possible.
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