Artist: Anacrusis
Label: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 1991
Rating: 5 Skulls
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Title: Manic Impressions Artist: Anacrusis Label: Warner Brothers Release Date: 1991
Rating: 5 Skulls |
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Reviewed by Berkley Black (3/4/03):
First and foremost, be warned that this is not the most easily accessable CD in the world, either to the ears or the wallet. OK, having given the proper disclaimer, Anacrusis is not now nor were they ever the most popular band in any respects. People who know old speed/technical/thrash know Anacrusis. Though being one of the lesser known bands of their era (87-93), they were a truly ground-breaking and influential group from St. Louis, of all places.I know for those of you who are reading this and know who they are, this is most likely not the album you would have picked, and let me say this: I have all four of their albums, Suffering Hour, Reason, Manic Impressions, and Screams & Whispers. I suppose I should say that this will be a multi-album review, for I will be comparing all four, but the main focus is Manic Impressions.
The first place I heard of Anacrusis was on a speed metal comp CD. It was just called "Speed Metal," and it had acts ranging from Pantera to Motorhead to Testament to Flotsam and Jetsam, with the little band called Anacrusis closing out the album. I lived in Turkey at the time, and the pickings were mighty slim there for anything not 15 years old, much less on CD. So, when I saw this comp, I snatched it up and devoured it with the fury of a cave troll. It took me a while to get to the the end of the album, due to the fact that most of it is quite good. I found myself stuck for a while on Metal Church, for the song "Badlands" had me so entranced that I barely broke free enough to hear the last track, "Terrified," by Anacrusis. I was more blown away by the fury in the last minute and really wacked out guitar licks that sound more like a scale than a song than anything else on that compilation.
Alas though, my incessant searching for the album the song was from, Reason, went unfulfilled for many years (hey, there was no Internet then, at least not one that I had access to in '92). I did however manage to come across Manic Impressions in Germany and ripped that disc off the shelf faster than a crackhead in a room full of free money. My initial response to it was disappointment, for most of the fury from that one song was missing. However, I was enlightened by the second track, "I Love the World." From that point of the CD on, it was more about depth and masterful playing, with switching between a semi-calm clean voice to an almost indiscernible scream (more like a screech) almost as disconcerting as the first two In The Woods albums' vocals. Almost every song has the droning of Ken Nardi as well as slight bits of his screeches - though I prefer his singing to the screeching on this particular album, whereas I love it on the debut Suffering Hour. Track 6 ("Still Black") is the best example of the dualities of the vocals when, from instant to instant, you never know which auditory assault you will receive. Most of the songs on the album (the cover song, "I Love the World," included) are about some form of lost love or troubled relationship. However, in contrast, the last song on the album ("Far Too Long") is almost a pathetic cry to the people of the world to unite and become a more happy and wholly united world through politics and responsibilities. Also, on that song the vocals never become abrasive or even loud and are instead stuck in a monotone that reflects the emotions of a broken-hearted outlook on the world.
That being the clinical version of the review, I must now give the personal and emotional one. The time in my life that I acquired this CD was a very emotional one for me, and so I think that is why it really hits me in the heart instead of the balls. It is quite musically and technically accomplished, and for that I am thankful, but it is the combination of the vocals and what they are saying that put this album far above the rest for as much as it's worth. I haven't been this emotionaly moved by speed metal since Time Does Not Heal by Dark Angel (thanks, Death, for finally getting that review up). If speed, talent and simple lyrics are what you are looking for, go with the older two (Suffering Hour and Reason), but if you crave talent, depth, worth and sheer speed (prog?) metal with a message to which you will bang your head and cry to at the same time, then look no futher than Anacrusis' Manic Impressions!
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