Betrayed - The Unbeliever

Betrayed were not Chile's first thrash band, forming in the late 80's, though they are surely veterans of a long-running scene in the South American nation. At least sole original member, drummer, Claudio Tapia, is. It doesn't take a one sheet for discerning listeners to find that The Unbeliever delivers solid if derivative thrash closely in line with the early 90's Bay Area bands. If Victims of Deception is a must-own album in your mind (I prefer the more Heavy Metal sounding Breaking The Silence personally) then you could do far worse. Containing five completely new tracks and re-recordings of seven-tenths of the 1990 full length, 1879 Tales of War, there's something enjoyable here for most blue-collar metal fans. Testament's The Ritual is also a noteworthy reference point, though Betrayed never quite achieve the timelessness of "Electric Crown" or "Deadline." Betrayed are not as rigid in their playing as Heathen, and not as rockin' as Testament. Betrayed don't quite find pockets of space for leads and harmonies the way Skolnick or Peterson do, but the lead guitar playing of JL Olmos and Mauricio Castro is a highlight. 

The five tracks from The Unbeliever EP are well paced, well produced, and professional. The production is not overly sapped of energy through post production; vibrant yet full guitars are natural and genuine revealing subtleties such as pick noise and string scrapes throughout. That this honesty and passion comes through in the production is a major hurdle crossed. "Looters Will Be Shot" is a key track from these five songs, with a super memorable - and wholesome - Thrash Metal chorus warning a response of force towards rioters and looters. "They are greedy, the Bastard Sons... Hey You! Looters will be shot! They are my Enemies, and I will crush them One By One..." This is followed by the similarly politically oriented "Constitution (Of The Oppressors)" which happens to be my personal favorite of the five tracks with it's shift towards a dramatic lead section with big melodic chords juxtaposed between the chug-heavy and staccato body. While the lyrical content suffers slightly, as it is clear that English is a second language for these men, the content is hard-nosed and serious in it's real-world universalism. 

The seven re-recorded tracks, here titled as 'Back to Tales of War' constitute a sizeable portion (three-fifths) of the play time of the disc. These are apparently rehearsal or studio recordings of the tracks from the original release of 1879 Tales of War, which has not seen any international release since it's debut. Interestingly, these tracks, especially opener "Fight For Your Land" and "The First Desillusion" remind me of Coroner and not the Bay Area bands. It is possibly mostly due to Erik Flores' vocal performance here, but some of the riff phrasing is just off-kilter enough to nod towards the Swiss trio. "Human Madness" is a bit of an odd track compared to the others. An instrumental, and significantly more upbeat... I would have chosen one of the other available tracks or omitted. "The Real Me" is equally melodic, but dark enough and containing enough of the band's thrash foundation to be my favorite of these older tracks. 

The Unbeliever is Betrayed's first for a non-Chilean market. Thrashback Records, four years after the original release of The Unbeliever domestically, has given the band some worthwhile attention. The booklet is well done, with the layout by Thrashback's Eric Hoffman, and the inner photos are all top notch as well; a ton of action shots, photo collages, etc. The lyrics are included for the new songs, but not the 1879 tracks; the only drawback here. This is a great little release, honestly. Thrash needs to be something special for me to enjoy it multiple times at this point in my life and Betrayed were able to make each return to his album more and more enjoyable. It's true that it's Bay Area Thrash we've all heard ten thousand times... but Betrayed play it with enough energy and fire to keep this one burning bright, where many other bands sadly find themselves smoldering away. 

Royal Anguish / The Risen / Oblation / Deracination / Faithful Witness / Mansoul / Final Prophecy - A.R.T. Records Singles Series Vol. 2

Another Thrashback Records Compilation, this seven-band sampler does less for me than Vol. 1. There are no tracks to compete with Drop Dead's powerful trio of death metal here, and the inclusion of seven different bands makes the compilation feel less focused. That the bands all had planned to release these 7"s on A.R.T. Records in the past might not be enough for some listeners to internalize the reason for this compilation's existence as worthwhile. While saving and digitizing these tracks for posterity is a laudable task, I'm not sure I would come back to much of this material unless it was tangentially related to something else. Maybe I would revisit a single track from The Risen if I was doing in depth research on death metal from Maryland. Perhaps I would come back to Oblation if one of the old members sent me something from a new project to check out. Maybe I would have to come back to Royal Anguish if the early to mid 90's Floridian death metal scene was a topic of discussion. But beside scholarship, this will likely see quite a lot of shelf-time and not a huge amount of play time as a complete album. These tracks, just like Vol. 1 of the A.R.T. Records compilations released by Thrashback Records, were from 7" single presses in the 90's. Unlike Vol. 1, these singles were never released. 

The best of the 7"s compiled here is the that of Faithful Witness and Mansoul. Faithful Witness cuts, "Shadows" and "Trembling of the Spirit" are the best overall off that, however the Mansoul release is easily the most interesting from a criticism / textural perspective. The two Faithful Witness tracks draw heavily on Suffocation and the New York Death Metal scene. There is a generous gargle to their bottom heavy tone, and the swelling speaker fuzz is the perfect compliment to the slow breakdown in "Trembling of the Spirit", a track whose origins are elusive to me, as it was included as a bonus track, and was not on the original 7". "Shadows" is likely the same recording from their sole 1993 self-titled demo tape, just recycled for the split release. I would have loved to have heard the other two tracks from that release. Mansoul's "Justified By Blood" is simply a unique track. It starts off with low-grade death metal and rubbery bass before breaking into a Preces-styled vocal transition. The echoing and angelic vocals of the Preces section get truncated by oppressively distorted guitars with a hint of phasing. The track then moves into a Megadeth-esque thrash riff and so on. The whole introduction is unique and memorable and the shifts in style are unpredictable for the first few listens. 

The tracks from the Royal Anguish / The Risen split 7" are average at best. "Retrospect" also appeared on the Killing Time compilation, and so is an immediate deduct for me. It appears to be the same exact recording and the additional track, "Shocking The Priest" doesn't do much for me either. Royal Anguish, through the tracks on these compilations have not won me over, even though they were a staple in the mid 90's in the Floridian scene. The Risen inhale their smoke from the polluted Northeastern death metal out of New York and New Jersey, going so far as to name their track, "Mortal Decay". There is no comparison quality wise, though, to the classics Dawn of Misery or Grisly Aftermath or pretty much most of Mortal Decay's catalog, really; the track is acceptable, but forgettable. The Oblation / Deracination 7" tracks, however, are solid death metal. Oblation's "Dead Unborn" is worthy of inspection with a unique main riff, and faster parts reminiscent of Scream Bloody Gore or Leprosy. Deracination's "Death by Fire" is a cool track with a thick Swedish guitar tone. 

The CD also includes two Final Prophecy tracks from a 7". While I guess it's reasonable to include these since they were also released as singles, I kind of liked the whole theme of 7" splits as further tying the release together. "Through Eyes of Fire" is not substantially different enough for me from that which was included on the Killing Time compilation. "We Must Die", however, is new. Thrashier in sound and style, and with less brutal death metal vocals than the other tracks, it both stands out and is odd man out. So for a release which really shows a mixture of death metal bands of different influences and scenes, I'm not sure where/if the track fits in well. I would have preferred a dredged up 7" of death metal from the crypts from the A.R.T Records back catalog. For example, A.R.T. Records released a demo tape from a Christian themed death metal band from Kentucky called Corpse, which would have been cool to include. Absent the two Final Prophecy tracks, Corpse included, it would have pushed this compilation over an hour long, but may have been a better fit against the other Death Metal tracks. I like the Final Prophecy material, but I just haven't been able to enjoy it given the context I've been served it within.

This release should conclude Thrashback's Singles Series. The two releases as a whole are interesting and both have some worthwhile material for what surely is a rather small overall audience. Regarding these types of compilations of obscure material from bygone bands: I can't help but feel there are miscalculations regarding how much interest there truly is in these kinds of releases. For scholarship purposes these are essential volumes; before long these 7" singles and odd demo tapes will surely disappear into boxes, storage units, and the crevice between record shelves and backerboards, never to be seen again. So this compilation - and Vol. 1 - do serve a purpose, even if that purpose is infinitesimally relevant. From a purely entertainment perspective I think it's more likely that average listeners want re-releases of albums long out of print.