Retrospective Finds #3: LEEWAY, MEZARKABUL, EDGE OF SANITY, and more...
Four weeks since the last installment of Retrospective Finds, so it's high time for the third one! Six featured releases, with a wide range of genres. Enjoy!
1. Leeway - Born To Expire
Release date: January 31st, 1989
Genre: Hardcore/Thrash Metal
Country: United States
Label: Profile Records
With respect and in memory of Eddie Sutton.
It’s truly a tragedy that it takes the death of a man for me to discover the legacy he’d left behind with his band of brothers. In this case, Eddie Sutton had graced our ears with one of the best New York hardcore/crossover thrash album that puts the mainstream thrashers of the late 80s, early 90s to shame.
“Born To Expire” is consistently energetic without a single dull moment, completed with a top-tier production that still, every now and then, blows the ultra-polished modern metal sound out of the water for how organic and powerful the mix comes through.
Truly a pioneering masterclass of modern heavy music, that unfortunately never got the level of acclaim it deserves, all thanks to shoddy business practices from the record label’s part.
My hats off to Leeway. And Rest In Power, Eddie.
2. Mezarkabul - Anatolia
Release date: May 30th, 1997
Genre: Heavy Metal
Country: Türkiye
Label: Raks Müzik
More popularly-known by the name Pentagram, but for the sake of easy distinction (considering how many bands out there are named as such), I’ll be addressing the band by their native name.
The first time I heard of them was during the worst period of COVID (early 2021), when I was in a short-lived, long-distance relationship with a Turkish girl who honestly helped me expand my music taste more than I realized. Anyway, the first-ever Mezarkabul song for me was an honestly radio metal track called “Geçmişin Yükü”. And for a while I’d stick to their later stuffs, that is, until this month when I discovered their third full-length released in 1997, “Anatolia”.
In both sonic and compositional contexts, this album has aged very well. Notwithstanding the incorporation of Turkish traditional music into their DNA, the inherent metal element in this album is already strong: a potent blend of groovy, Pantera-esque blunt force and a Sabatthian proto-doom sludge, most prominent in the track “Dark Is The Sun”.
3. Edge of Sanity - Purgatory Afterglow
Release date: October 1st, 1994
Genre: Death Metal
Country: Sweden
Label: Black Mark Production
Of course I’m one of the people who discovered the band through Dan Swanö’s latest remix of “Twilight”.
While I was definitely not impressed by the sentimental intro of Purgatory Afterglow’s opener, I was by the crushing, HM-2 chainsaw signature to Swedish death metal.
Further perusal takes me to a consensus of more seasoned metalheads that this is Edge of Sanity’s most stylistically varied album and that fact alone makes it one of the most divisive and underappreciated albums of the band’s discography.
Personally, I find no issues in this matter, as long as the musicians manage to integrate these seemingly opposing elements into one collective work of art without seams. For the case of “Purgatory Afterglow”, it is safe to say that Dan Swanö managed to do this, and he did it well: the transitions between punishing death metal and more melodic, if not emotionally so, are flawless and feel natural.
Will definitely dig deeper into the rest of the discography after this album.
4. Kraut - An Adjustment to Society
Release date: c. 1982
Genre: Punk Rock/Hardcore Punk
Country: United States
Label: Cabbage Records/Faulty Products
I am definitely not a punkhead, but I truly believe that any individual who proclaims themself to be one MUST pick this album up if they haven’t already.
While nowhere near as well-known as their peers in the genre such as Dead Kennedys, Agnostic Front, and - of course - Cro-Mag, the amount of influence Kraut had - alongside the aforementioned - on the formation of more breakneck breeds of metal is undeniable.
Give the band a listen, and one will immediately see how much their favorite bands are inspired by the uncompromising, rebellious, straight-up anthemic sound of this outfit.
An essential in deep study of heavy music.
5. Holyarrow - 靖難 / Fight Back for the Fatherland
Release date: December 8th, 2018
Genre: Black Metal
Country: China
Label: Independent
While I have long known of a much-thriving Chinese black metal scene, it wasn’t until this month that I give one of the bands a much-overdue conscientious listen.
Written about the later years of the Yuan dynasty and - explicitly within the tracklist - the Ispah Rebellion and the subsequent massacre that concluded it, ”Fight Back for the Fatherland” is a work written in the perspective of dynastic faction of Fujian (or, better known in the Western world, Hokkien) in the face of Semu rebels. Undoubtedly, a sense of duty-calling and patriotism imbued into the music.
While Western epic black metal often has an air of grandeur to it, said larger-than-life impression isn’t found in Holyarrow. Instead, they opt for a rather solemn and stoic energy to craft this absolutely captivating opus.
6. Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Release date: May 29th, 2006
Genre: yes (lol)
Country: Switzerland
Label: Century Media Records
This is an album that refuses to be concisely summed up by any singular label. Ironically, in the same air, it is impossible to find enough words to describe how eccentric and brilliant the album is, that conciseness is the only way to talk about it.
It’s bone-shakingly heavy, yet also beautifully gentle; and, most importantly, it completely subverts your mind with the hypnotic atmosphere. Every track is amazing in its own way that it would be exhaustive to do so right here.
The verdict is simple: please go listen to the album to see how good it is.