Damn, damn. They keep them coming and we keep on writing about them. Here are eight more reissues to satiate your thirst for metal you may have overlooked or be totally ignorant about. Check ‘em out and spread the word.

The super awesome Metal Mind Productions is re-releasing Mind Reflections; Pestilence’s Best of compilation originally released by Roadrunner Records in 1994. Mind Reflections comprehensively includes the most outstanding cuts of each of Pestilence's albums along with six live tracks recorded at Holland’s Dynamo Open Air festival from back in June 1992. Pestilence was without a doubt one of the most interesting technical thrash/death metal bands to emerge from the late 80’s/early 90’s European scene. Formed in the Netherlands in 1986, the band broke ground by allegedly infusing jazz signatures into their complicated brand of death metal, but truth be told, a lot of it simply sounds like highly complicated, dexterous and unmelodic metal. This is especially true on the songs belonging to their earlier albums; Malleus Maleficarum (1988) and Consuming Impulse (1989); the likes of which clearly show the band making a transition from Sepultura influenced thrash death into a more refined death metal hybrid. By the time Pestilence was on their fourth and last release Spheres, their sound was clearly beyond the pungent aggression of their earliest material and the constant use of synth guitars further justified the band’s inclusion into the jazz metal miniature realm.

All Hail to Thee (Enigma 1984) was Znowhite’s debut LP.  According to some, this is the fastest speed metal record of the 80’s. Now, that might be impossible to fact check, but the fact that Znowhite was a three-fourths black metal band at the time is not. And by that I mean that all the musicians were African American. The vocals were handled by a white girl named Nicole Lee, who thank goodness could sustain a note but whose high-pitch delivery kind of sucked about half the time. Znowhite was formed in Chicago in 1982 by three relatives, the most outstanding of which was guitarist Ian Tafoya. This self-titled re-release of All Hail to Thee includes five bonus tracks from the Kick ‘Em When They’re Down EP, which features a pretty horrible live sound (it sounds like all the instruments were recorded separate and the results were mixed by a deaf man with a grudge) and also includes 1985’s Live Suicide release, which unfortunately buries Tafoya’s stellar riffing and puts Lee’s vocals up front. Surprisingly, Lee actually sounds more powerful in this live recording than in the studio material.

Act of God is Znowhite’s Sgt. Pepper. Released in 1988 by Roadracer Records and featuring a 75% Caucasian/25% African American line up, Act of God is definitely a much more accomplished recording.   The songs have a more modern sound to them, perfectly fitting and proudly standing alongside the most average thrash and speed metal records of the late 80’s. The recording by guitarist Ian Tafoya is much better and has stood the pass of time. Come to think of it, Act of God actually sounds exactly like all those thrash revivalist bands that are so in vogue today; staccato riffs, high pitched vocals, fiery solos and drums that make you scream for the invention of the double bass. Unfortunately for the band, around this time Nicole Lee decided to quit the band, a decision reportedly caused by her lack of dedication to the metal scene. Tafoya and co. tried to find a suitable replacement, eventually hiring Debbie Gunn of Sentinel Beast. Things didn’t work out with Gunn failing to live up to expectations and Znowhite subsequently calling it quits. The rest of Znowhite would with the help of vocalist Sonny De Luca form Cyclone Temple, a band that would release two full-lengths and one EP to lukewarm reception.

The next band, I keep a bit close to my heart. Not because I was a huge fan of their music but because while in business school I contacted guitarist John Perez to help me out with a paper. He was kind enough to give me some insight into the way independent metal labels work. Those of you who already know which band I am referring to certainly know their American doom pretty well. Solitude Aeturnus came to be in 1987 in Arlington, TX. Formed by former Rotting Corpse guitarist Jon Perez and originally simply named Solitude, it wouldn’t be until Robert Lowe entered the picture after original vocalist Kris Gabehardt quit the band that things would truly get going for Solitude Aeturnus. The band had already received some attention from labels after the release of two demos and in January of 1990 they hit the studio. Recorded for the paltry sum of $3,000, Into the Depths of Sorrow was originally scheduled to be released by the King Klassic label, but due to financial issues that never happened. Enter Roadrunner Records, who would release this recording in July of 1991, over a year after it was finished. The remasterization process has definitely given this release new life, where the original recording sounded 'smaller' this reissue of  Into the Depths of Sorrow sounds as if it had been recorded on analog but with all the right tones and pitches. The songs themselves can be encased in the doom metal genre with vocalist Robert Lowe being the one key element; here is a singer who can actually sing as well as any of the classic heavy metal singers of the 70’s and 80’s.

Beyond the Crimson Horizon is Solitude Aeturnus’ second full-length and was released in 1992 on Roadrunner Records. Written before Into the Depths of Sorrow hit the streets and produced by Danny Brown and the band, this record definitely features a better and more professional sound than their debut. The songs keep the same line; Solitude Aeturnus’s kind of doom is definitely distanced from the more groove laden stoner/doom that has surged over the past decade and a half. On the slowest tracks the band approaches the music with a totally somber, humorless and depressive attitude leaving drug-infused conventionalities to their more light headed stoner rock counterparts. After Beyond the Crimson Horizon was released, the band went on tour with Paul DiAnno’s Killers, who by the way totally suck, and would eventually be dropped by Roadrunner. Solitude Aeturnus is still active and has released four albums since, the last of which is titled Alone and was released by Locomotive in 2007.

Arch Enemy is huge now. But many metalheads don’t know that the band led and created by former Carcass axeman Mike Amott was initially fronted by Johan Liiva Axelsson, who also did time with Carnage, Furbowl and NonExist and can nowadays be found leading a band named Hearse. Regain Records is reissuing Arch Enemy’s debut Black Earth, originally released by Wrong Again Records in 1996. Pretty much recorded in its entirety by Amott, Black Earth, like anything that includes him, has spectacular guitar playing. At this point Arch Enemy weren’t really a band, there were no real members besides Amott and Liiva and as a result some of the songs sound like a less corrosive version of late Carcass. Then again, think not Necroticism, but a middle point between Heartwork and Swansong. It’s easy to see why Liiva was later asked to leave the band; he’s got a powerful voice and as a thrash metal frontman he is quite good, but his approach can be called anything but flexible and dynamic.

Sweden’s excellent I Hate label has re-released the 1991 Rev Smrti demo recording from Czechoslovakia’s Crux. Crux was a short-lived trio led by guitarist Petr “Blackosh” Hošek who also did time with Root, a cult progressive/black/death metal band that lives to this day. Root would in the end be the reason for the short life span of Crux as the former started sucking too much time of Hošek’s life.   Anyway, here was a band functioning and reacting to the fall of communism through profane thrash black metal of the highest order. All the music has a vintage black metal feel to it, however musically speaking, this trio was above most. Pay particular attention to the melodic guitar solos.   The music itself could be categorized in the no time for funny faces thrash metal vibe, but the vocals and screams of Blackosh and bassist Roman definitely belong to the Satanic kind.
 

Ahh, Ross Robinson has given us so much music. As a producer he can be one of those to blame for the surge of that hideous nu metal thingy, but as a musician he wasn’t that off the mark. With Détente (pictured above), the band he played in along with the greatly missed vocalist Dawn Crosby in the mid 80’s, he created some pretty damn tasty thrash metal. Personally, I am super stoked as back when I was about twelve years old got a hold of this Best of Metal Blade compilation that, absurdly enough, had no band names attached to the songs. Along with the Sodom song  (“Deathlike Silence”) the one that got my interest the most was a fucking deity called “Holy War”. So for years I have languished not knowing whose was it. Here it is, Détente. Anyway, this California band was formed in 1984 and signed to Roadrunner in Europe. In 1986 their only record Recognize No Authority was released to critical acclaim.  In the States it was licensed to Metal Blade who did a really poor job marketing it. Soon after the band split up with Ross and bassist Steve Hochheiser forming Catalepsy and Dawn and drummer Dennis Butler forming Fear of God. 

Go to Underground Metal Reissues IV