Gothic Slam
Killer Instinct

Reviewing this album means for me going back to that summer Saturday afternoon, 12 or 13 years ago, when I bought it second-hand. I had just started listening to heavy music, I really liked Thrash, and since I knew the names of various bands, this ensemble with the unusual moniker came to mind. I listen to it, rediscovering the emotions of those days, influenced by the weather, the work, or the dreams I carried within. So, I have very specific feelings as I write this review.
The cover of this vinyl (it was not released on CD), which came out in 1988, shows five young men in jeans and t-shirts, with a proud look, seeming to say: "We’re here too". They are photographed near a bell tower under the New Jersey sun (I presume), indeed, because that's where they come from: they are of Hispanic origin.

The debut in question presents eight tracks in just under thirty minutes of Thrash music, played with youthful fervor, endowed with a sound that mimics a just-started truck (thanks to Alex Perialas, already producer of Testament, Overkill, and Vio-Lence), with an imaginative rhythm section and a singer with a raw but modulable voice.

I can't say exactly who might have influenced this debut band, but they certainly favor fast-paced tracks like "Shankin" and "Living To Survive" (certainly not like Assassin's "The Upcoming Terror," just to name the first that comes to mind), and tracks like "Tormentor", with well-emphasized tempo changes by the rhythm section. The drummer is the most well-known and talented member of the group, that Dave Chavarri who would play in various bands, such as M.O.D, Laaz Rockit, Pro-Pain, up to the current Ill Nino.

The opener "Shankin" takes me back to the patronal feast in the mountains (sigh), then here comes Daniel Gomez's shout: "Fuck this" and the truck starts at the minimum of the Genese-Ryker guitar tandem. In this song Daniel's voice (uhm, in the next album he turns into Dan, which sounds more Yankee) resembles the more aggressive traits of Bon Scott (when he screams) immersed in Latin heat.
There are two songs I prefer: "Living To Survive" and "Stand Up And Fight". The first is engaging, accelerated, with an excellent chorus and Bay Area Thrash-style choirs, the second endowed with the two best solos of this (mini) album: practically a back-and-forth between the two axes.

Note the gloomy intro of "Tormentor", characterized (I believe) by various sampled voices, producing a sound from a satanic horror movie, identical to that flaunted by Nasty Savage in the opener "No Sympathy" of the eponymous debut album. Probably a tribute to an not strictly Thrash influential band. The other tracks, from the title track to the instrumental "Stryker" (which was the old name of the band), are digestible but lacking in highlight points, which prevents the album from taking off from the sea of other Thrash-oriented offerings of the period. What a pity!

I really like this little record; special memories come to mind, as I said; even a bone-crushing track can touch my soul more than an acoustic ballad. "Killer Instinct" I listen to, I look at, and I empathize with these guys who want to make it: portrayed on the back cover in a small club playing, perhaps already knowing, in their hearts, that they will never reach an important festival.

Our Thrashers would produce another album in 1989, with the help of Raven drummer Rob Hunter in production, and then disband and never return. Few know them, and few have the album.

I am among them, and I do not regret it.