ANACRUSIS - Hindsight: Reason (12" Gatefold DOUBLE LP)

Classic Anarcusis albums the way they should have been... and now are! Since most people generally are not a fan of re-recordings, we must admit that we approached the Hindsight albums with much trepidation. While we understood the motivations behind these, much too often the feel of an album gets compromised after making way for better production quality. Even worse, some artists like to butcher their work George Lucas-style by subtracting and adding different arrangements that completely change the songs all together. These follies are why we were a little gunshy to check out this compilation, but being a big fan of the band, we knew we had to give it a try. We think this is one of the most underrated bands in history, and it's a shame so many a metal fan are still unfamilar with Anacrusis, who were so brilliantly ahead of their time with their own original, imaginitive, and technical band of thrash. True, the production on the original recordings of "Suffering Hour" and "Reason" were not the greatest, the former especially. So we gave it a go and played "Suffering Hour" first. When "Present Tense" came on, we were immediately relieved by how the guitar sounded, especially since the unique guitar-tones of Kenn and Kevin are one of their key trademarks. When the drums and bass came in seconds after we were even more relieved; despite everything sounding much cleaner it still retained that sound like it was recorded in a crypt. And then finally, and maybe most importantly, the vocals of Kenn Nardi. Good news! He can still do... whatever the fuck he does! The songs are all full-speed ahead, and I'll say that these recordings are really what these songs were meant to sound like. "Imprisoned", "Butcher's Block", "Frigid Bitch" are outstanding, as well as my personal fave "Fighting Evil". Next was "Reason". We honestly think this is like listening to a totally different album to us this time around, and maybe it was really just the production all along. We truly feel that the new recording has defintely breathed new life into these songs for us, and we enjoy them as much as we do on the tracks on "Suffering Hour" So there you have it, a rare example of when a re-do makes perfect sense. They didn't fuck with anything, they just went for it, and after 20+ years it feels like they've been unfrozen from their cryogenic chambers, as the performances are outstanding here. In the liner notes, Kenn Nardi mentions that on the original recordings there were some "sloppy performances" present, but there weren't really. The real problem was that the production didn't allow them to sound like heavy band that they truly were. Now you can hear the full potential of these songs, much fuller and heavier this time around without losing the ethereal feel of the originals. We recommend this compilation to longtime fans of the first two releases, and newcomers alike. In fact, we might even insist on this being the first release someone should hear from Anacrusis. For metalheads that also enjoy: (old) Slayer, (old) Metallica, Coroner, Voivod, Death, Sadus, Kreator