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.