Mordred
Fool's Game

Mordred is the name of a character from Anglo-Saxon literature, belonging to King Arthur's circle, cited by Dante in the Inferno as an example in the circle of traitors to relatives:

"... not those to whom the chest was broken and the shadow with it by a blow at the hand of Arthur"

Arthur kills the rebellious nephew Mordred by driving a lance into his carcass, piercing him from side to side as a ray of sun passed through the wide gap and at that point the body cast no shadow. (Dante - Inferno - Canto XXXII - notes on verses 61-62 Ed. Zanichelli 1993)

In the mid-80s, a gang of musicians emerged in San Francisco who adopted the moniker Mordred to delight the ears of the neighborhood with Thrash Metal chimes typical of the Bay Area. A well-grounded clique that released the first demo in 1986, with a distinctive arachnophobic cover, and the second in 1987, featuring a chessboard and two obnoxious military skeletons. In 1989, the EP "Everyday Has Holiday" was released, the guiding piece's title that would become their horse of St. Francis, with a hateful Jolly Joker on the cover that makes you want to slap it. "Fool's Game" hit the shelves in 1989, preceded by the demo for Noise Records (www.metal-archives.com), while the thrash world championship race is losing its vital momentum; this good debut discreetly joins it, highlighting the participation in songwriting from all the bad guys of the group, even those who were with them during the demo days, including Alex Gerould, James Sanguinetti (founding member with Art Liboon), Steve Skates, Erik Lannon, and the mysterious Josh Juska. The latter is an enigma that might interest the old Ellery Queen as he disappeared from this dimension and in the inner sleeve of the vinyl, it is noted he only composed the music of "Spellbound" (Music: J.J).

A multi-ethnic ensemble that also includes bassist Art Liboon and the exotic-featured singer Scott Holderby, while a second guitarist Jim Taffer completes the lineup. Aaron "Pause" Vaughn, DJ and scratcher, lends his services in two episodes of the record, becoming a permanent fixture from the following full-length. The music critics of the time immediately see in Mordred the ideal group that blends Thrash with Funk but things are different: the Funk element is present in two tracks, namely the hit "Everyday Is A Holiday" and the Rick James cover "Super Freak". In these two airs, Pause's scratching indeed gives a lot of flavor to the tracks, and we enjoy them well, especially the first one that features a mix of scraping guitar and funk guitar (in the "Crunge" Zeppelin style), well blended and even a mini acceleration emphasized by instantly absorbable solos that get the head moving. The rest of the album offers more than good tracks, where Funk does not exist, like the introspective opener "State Of Mind" in which singer Holderby admits: "... I tried several times to reveal the state of my mind...", driven by fast but not too fast thrash that benefits from his subtle voice, not as high-pitched and powerful as Russ Anderson's (Forbidden), for example, but it seems that this does not harm the success of the album. Another captivating track is "The Artist" which opens side B of the vinyl, with a succession of slow and fast phases, halts and restarts, pleasantly highlighted by the melodic, celestial exercise of the guitars that recreates (see "State Of Mind") epic atmospheres, almost emphasizing the cryptic fantasy cover, but also in our subconscious a set of emotions that this strange piece brings forcefully to light, always not forgetting the rough guitars, a sort of refreshing granita (just like the one Plata-Terence Hill & Salud-Bud Spencer give the limping seeker in "Più Forte Ragazzi"); the piece is actually a bleak indictment against an unspecified artist:

"He screws himself/Just like a child who forgot how to learn/Just save time/Burn in this prison he built with his hands/Deceitful tongue sharp as a rusty razor/with eyes that seem so purely deceitful/walks proud and sure like a dusty soldier/with a medal from his heart's companion/Here’s the pitch, it looks like a curve/He who dies with the most toys wins/Anonymous, ambiguous, they're all the same/He'll take your money with a 32-tooth grin/Deceitful tongue sharp as a rusty razor/with eyes that seem so purely deceitful/walks proud and sure like a dusty soldier/with a medal of his heart's companion/Worse than animals/The artist needs/The artist is greedy/Bites the hand that feeds him/Splashes in money like pigs in shit/Has money to burn, yours not his/The madness for material things destroys him/And drives the bastard to the edge of the abyss"

A drop in the splendid communications between listener and group is found in the ordinary thrash bullets "Shatter" and "Reckless Abandon", visited by the choruses of Michael Coons from Laaz Rockit, Chuck Billy from Testament, and Ken Elkinton from Defiance (a family photo, basically). The album is discreetly produced by Dino Alden, but not majestically especially for the sound of the drums which is incredibly booming, although the sound is nasty enough to stand alongside the likes of Exodus and Testament. Later, Alden would also produce Imagika thrashers in the mid-90s. The other pieces are well played: "Spectacle Of Fear" features collective backing vocals that do not detract at all, on the contrary, they seem to invigorate Holderby's tiny, soft voice; the closing piece "Numb" breaks in with majestic, paradisiacal axes to listen to on a day like this: soft, white clouds gliding in the sky and the backdrop of pale mountains silhouetted against the horizon, but once again the music deceives and the text could be the analysis of the situation of a sick young man, a dying soldier, a repentant murderer:

"Look who I am now/I don't care about anyone/I don't care about anything/Dive into my mind/search for some emotion, impossible to find/I feel empty/No pain/I'm lost/Why don't you take my hand?/Remember what you told me what we planned/Can't you forget my name?/Some things change, you'll remain the same...and I've changed"

The small crumbs of melody combined with the desire to "move on" that we feel in the branches of the guitars, in Holderby's pleading voice, and in Art Liboon's bass lines, are the true essence of the record, while the band becomes the true white fly of the Noise Records stable, in which thrash wears the clothes of the grim reaper, does not support the damp clothes of the Bay Area Sound nor the cheerful scents of the torrid chart funk. Mordred is ready to deliver their masterpiece, namely "In This Life", where the insights of "Fool's Game", together with a more refined and balanced production, will be sublimated by excellent songwriting, realized as the Pascolian evening descends on the Bay Area and the Pantera emerges from the darkness.