Redrum “Power Corrupt$” CD

Continuing to impress, the second outing from Evil Legend Records is the "Power Corrupt$" album from Sacramento, CA's Redrum—which was recorded in February of 1989 (shortly before the band called it a day) and first released in an inferior form in 1990, so this is the first time the material has been properly and officially released on CD. Also included are two brief live sets as a bonus—one recorded at the El Dorado Saloon (four songs, 1987) and the other at the Oasis Ballroom (three songs, 1985)—for an hour's worth of old school thrash when all is said and done. For having been recorded in 1989, these guys were doing a great job of blending the more "technical" and dynamic late-80's thrash sound with the sheer intensity of the early- to mid-80's style in terms of applying the fluid midpaced to moderately fast crunch, light complexities, and memorable writing tactics of the former to the bits and pieces of traditionally-based heavy metal riffing and loads of loosely acerbic yet still rock-based solo bursts of the latter—while the vocals tend to fall into the upper-range of the singing spectrum without getting too high-pitched or lacking an aggressive edge that hints at shouting/yelling. It's nothing that blows my mind or anything, but that's not to detract from the quality of the material at all, because the riffs are totally solid and at their best the band cranks out some absolutely raging tracks that can actually get pretty damn catchy. Hell, there's even a little bit of a crossover sort of thing going on from time to time during some of the faster and more hardcore/punk-infused chord progressions. Good stuff. The killer mastering job brings out the punchy basslines exceptionally well and keeps things sounding crisp and cohesive with an unexpectedly forceful crunch—though, in line with the songwriting, the production values actually have a little bit of a pre-1989 vibe as well. Not too clean, not too rough around the edges... just right! The live tracks sound much thinner, but they're perfectly listenable, and the album itself is what truly matters, so... no real issues there. And of course there's some fuckin' awesome cover art adorning the slick 12-page booklet (full-color), which contains liner notes from Laurent Ramadier of the mighty Snakepit magazine, lyrics, tons of old photos and early artwork, etc. This is another extremely admirable release from the Evil Legend camp, so I can't wait to see what comes next!

Redrum "P.T.L."
Redrum "World War III/Aftermath"

If you download stuff like this instead of buying it, I hate you. Stop doing that shit. It's not cheap to release material such as this (especially at this level of quality) and it can be pretty damn hard to find people who give a shit about obscure underground thrash from nearly 20 years ago, so... show your support with a purchase if you're a diehard fan of thrash metal's classic age:

Evil Legend Records