Stygian
Planetary Destruction

My occasional activity on DeBaser continues, and I return to another little gem of thrash metal, a path I've followed in my recent reviews, so far from the innocent and naive ones of my beginnings. Today it's the turn of "Planetary Destruction," the only full-length album by the American band Stygian, dated 1992. This period often bristles with albums considered forgotten masterpieces, rightly or wrongly, blaming the decline of the genre and the labels' attention shifting to death and grunge, which I won't elaborate on further as it's really the same old story. This is one of those emblematic cases, summarizing dozens of projects lost in time: a band that forms, works hard for three or four years until they deliver the fruit of their labors, and then abandons everything after receiving little appreciation. They often get re-evaluated, in most cases, many years later if their work is truly worthy. So let's move to Chicago and see what these five young men have to offer. A special mention goes to the vocalist, Gary Golwitzer, who previously played in another recognized underground band, the Wrath.

The album essentially reflects its time, starting with the decidedly old-school cover, which comes as no surprise: Stygian presents a style of thrash far from the beginnings marked by Exumer, Dark Angel, Whiplash, opting for a more personal, less furious formula (you won't find many moments for spinal cord injury during a headbanging session) but more melodic and articulated. This is mainly thanks to two factors: the aforementioned Golwitzer abandons the shrill screams of his Wrath days (which I have to say I didn't like at all) in favor of a singing style more akin to Chuck Billy's tones, which I find much more successful, and, above all, the guitars decide to offer something special. Bob Allen and Mike Delmore, two names that might not mean much, deliver an impressive performance in these ten tracks, so much so that the real attractions of the album are the various guitar solos throughout these approximately 45 minutes, although it would be too reductive to limit the album's value to just these. There are, in fact, really high-level tracks like "Cremation" or "Preacher and the Politician," my favorites: the first has an intro that reminds me a lot of "Into the Pit," confirming the Testament influences, but then develops very well with various tempo changes up to the mid-song break, where the guitar duo delivers a really sweet, technical, and prolonged solo, probably one of the best moments of the entire album; the second features an extremely catchy chorus, where Golwitzer tries to bring some melody, succeeding quite well. Excellent once again is the guitar work, which serves as a leitmotif of the album but whose craftsmanship is impossible not to appreciate. These two songs alone would be enough to encapsulate what Stygian wants to offer, but the rest of the album is also worth a listen (at least), while following a script between more aggressive tracks (the title track, "Deadly Psychic Evil") and others more considered (the concluding "The Switch"), even with a ballad ("Needful Things") and a brief instrumental ("Environmental Suicide"). Saying a few words about the rest of the band, it's undeniable that their presence is somewhat overshadowed by the band's "leaders": James Harris's bass is almost impossible to hear, while Dennis Lesh on drums performs a rather elementary job, due to the not overly fast rhythms of the songs, but he knows how to accelerate when needed, also providing us with double bass interludes at the right time.

Summarizing the concepts, this is not an enthusiastic review or full of regrets, it's not the usual "these guys deserved more, damn music industry!!1", also because the real reasons for the band's dissolution are unknown to me; judging in hindsight, however, one realizes that "Planetary Destruction," though not a milestone, can reasonably be considered a small forgotten gem, as I have done, an album containing passion and great quality that can serve as a valid alternative to listen to if like me, you're always searching for new music. I don't hide that I would have liked to enjoy more work from Stygian; but perhaps it's precisely their story that adds so much value to this album.