Manic Abraxas : "Skinformation"

 

This trio from Maine bangs out a dense fuzzed-out take on thrash. From a marketing perspective, they might try to play too cool for school and suggest that they are actually more of a punk band, but when punk fused with metal back in the 80s that is how thrash was created. I would say their take on the genre is even less punk than early Voivod, another band that shares these guys' love for science-fiction themes. The burly nature of the guitar tone that marks their fourth album lends sludge sonics to their sound, but sludge is another fusion of punk with doom metal. Sure there is a Motorhead feel to some of the riffs driving the second song, but Motorhead was the prototype for thrash, just ask Metallica. 

The drummer is this band's MVP. Though a band is more often than not only as good as their drummer in the first place. The snarl of the vocals almost has a Venom-like menace to it. "Nanodust' is the three-and-a-half minute banger that continues to hammer at you with the dark menace that pervades this album. To the band's credit, this does feel like a long-lost album from Combat Records circa 1983. The electronic elements begin to creep in giving "Winter's Mute" more of an industrial feel. The croon of the vocals is a little pitchy, but overall it works. The production shifts to adapt to the sound they are going for moving things up into 1989. The title track lurches into a more deliberate sludge-trodden riff. This leads to this also being the album's most sprawling song at almost seven minutes. The vocals are almost more spoken than sung or snarled. up it  When things speed up it feels like it is more done at random. It droning on the chugged grind of the riff 

"Cyber Satyr" has more of a rock n roll feel. The way the vocals fall reminds me a bit of Metallica. The song is pretty effective with all of these elements in play. "Dark Builder" pretty much rides the static tension of a fuzzed-out bass line. There is more of a creeping groove to the riff that brings the last song to life. While this riff is effective, the vocals pretty much drag the song into stagnation, until they belt it out with a more soaring vocal before the song winds down. I will give this album a 9, as it fuses the 80s with modern sludge metal in a fun manner. This album drops in August. 

pst356