It's like 1991 never happened!
I don't normally review CD's here. But I was asked nicely, and it helps that it's a good album.
So what's the story here? Combustible is a posthumous release, from a New Brunswick band that broke up in 1996. The Canadian Maritimes seem to have a pretty diverse and active metal scene; I'd like to attribute that to their isolation from more easy-access metal scenes (Toronto, Montreal) but Calgary has that too and our metal scene is just about nonexistent. Poverty, maybe? Must be the poverty.
Written in the early 90's and recorded in the later years, Combustible probably would not have seemed as fresh at the time it was written as it might now. Back then, any band still sticking to the basics of American thrash was criticized for flogging on with such a recently-exhausted style (seemed like every review for Sacred Reich at the time had the word "dinosaur" in it). It doesn't have the massive chuggy production that thrash would adopt probably starting with Testament's Low, instead recorded in that crispy midrange indicative of the late 80's-1990.
But in the years since, one's perspective is honed. You know how nice it is to hear a heavy, North American band today that doesn't sound like Nickleback or Korn? It was the same way with grunge then. While no underground metal fan today would expect a band they might want to listen to to do either (stigma and sanctions against such things are more dire now) if you'll recall, it happened then. A lot. The numbers of thrash fans dwindled, with less and less to hang on to, and the tiny handful of bands that stayed true to the style were appreciated - by those fans, and them alone. It is no wonder the style had to hibernate.
All music here is composed and performed by one Larry LeBlanc, with some lyrical contributions from singer Garry Gallant. Those vocals - the style which made a difference then moreso than now - are much like Tom Araya's more melodic moments. Think "Skeletons Of Society". Actually, "Skeletons Of Society" is brought to mind so vividly on the song "Arsenal Of Democracy" that Kerry would probably be pretty pissed if he heard this.
So far as thrash goes, it's not that fast, with frequent nods to the NWOBHM ("Empty Wire") and more heavy American metal ("Laminate"). "Aweful Mannered Ways" is more of an uptempo rock n' roll, and they both work fine as stylistic detours. But the jump-up-and-down title track just does not sound good to modern ears, admittedly through little fault of the band's own (they couldn't have known, when writing it, how tired the sound would be by 2004, but they had to have had a clue by the time it was recorded).
Lyrically, there's a conspicuous absence of traditional American thrash topics (nuclear annihilation, environmental devastation, money-sucking preachers, many more "socially conscious" subjects), which would've been a welcome respite at the time, though some of the lyrical subjects which are broached here ("Psycho Circus Clown") might make you miss all the songs about WWIII.
Tormented was a band that was merely part of a genre instead of defining it, but to their local scene they were probably towers of metal might. The music on Combustible is tight, well-composed, and if it isn't specifically original, it's certainly performed with authority and always feels like it's going somewhere; with thrash on its last legs at the time, thrash bands that refused to wake up and smell the 90's (even in a more positive sense, like Testament did) had to thrash with that authority and riff more impressively than an album's worth of combinations of E-G-A-Bflat or die a deserved delete-bin death. Which is why I'm writing about Tormented in 2004, and not Sacred Reich.
This issue of the album has five bonus tracks from LeBlanc's new band, Deadreach. There are few traces of thrash in these songs - they're more of a heavy , non-noisy stoner rock, with some nods toward more traditional hard rock ("Run For Hell") or even latter-day Maiden ("Fallen Nation") and a few more guitar heroics per song than the Tormented material. "Beat In My Heart" is by far the most impressive song, and might even be better than any of the Tormented stuff - it's like stoner rock mixed with power metal guitar melodies, a very cool mix that makes me dream of sleazy vans with custom barbarians-and-maidens paintjobs.
Get it here, 'cuz like most metal worth listening to, you won't find it at Sam The Record Man: www.psychocircusclown.com
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