Anacrusis: Reason and Suffering Hour Reissues (Metal Blade, 2019)

Progression and technical proficiency have long been an important part of extreme music, but you originally tended to find those elements in death metal bands like Cynic, Atheist and of course Death. Anacrusis was one of the rare thrash metal bands that was extremely technical and truly progressive. Anacrusis was years ahead of their time. They took the straightforward thrash sound and fused it with plenty of musical and vocal experimentation, creating a complex and engaging variation of thrash metal that set them apart from the rest of the pack. Much of the credit for this goes to singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer Kenn Nardi.

Anacrusis’s first two albums – 1988’s Suffering Hour and 1990’s Reason are of a somewhat more straightforward thrash metal nature than the band’s later efforts, but you can definitely tell that there was more to Anacrusis’s sound. Sure there were the expected high speed riffs and grim lyrics, but these albums feel like early Testament collided with a supercomputer. Odd time signatures, punishing riffs, unconventional vocals and weird yet compelling melodies all intertwine here, making these early efforts stand out from the thrash metal pack as well as providing a glimpse of the greatness to come.

Edition Notes: After being out of print for decades, we finally got a proper reissue of Suffering Hour and Reason this year. Both albums have been newly remastered and sound so much better, especially compared to the bootleg versions that had been circulating. Each also includes four bonus tracks (mostly demos) that weren’t available on the Annihilation Complete anthology from a few years back. The only drawback is that the CD versions are in digipacks. There are also LP versions.

As cool as it was to hear these albums re-recorded for the Hindsight set, we really needed official reissues, so it’s great to finally have them in hand. Reissues of the final two Anacrusis albums are due later this month.

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Summary: FINALLY - Legit Anacrusis reissues!