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Imagika > Imagika > Reviews
Imagika - Imagika

Crushes My World - 91%

lord_ghengis, May 26th, 2008

Imagika are one of the few shining lights of post early 90's thrash metal. Their combination of high energy bay area thrash with a little bit of power metal works damn well, and their 1995 debut shows that they had this style completely nailed from the very start of their career. Also, despite being produced fairly cheaply, the sound that the band has obtained is absolutely amazing.

A few things that should be noted about the band's modern approach to thrash, firstly, it's still most definitely thrash, so don't be worried about awkward half-thrash, just it's now thicker in sound, while still sufficiently rough, and coupled with a few little of power metal touches, although not as much as the albums that followed it. But one thing that you can really hear in the sound is that band isn't one of these groups who have caught onto thrash as a genre a long time after it existed, and had their own take of it, which can still be good, but rarely has the same spirit to it. This band clearly, formed '93, was functional and starting up while there was still enough decent thrash around. Not only does this make this album feel just like those bands, this makes their decision to combine thrash metal with other genres is really quite revolutionary.

Anyway, onto the album. Basically, this release is pretty much a total riff monster, there are quite a few songs loaded with 4 or 5 different killer speedy thrash riffs in each, the structuring of these faster songs isn't all that impressive, but the quality of the riffs on offer more than makes up for it. Couple with these headbangers are a few of slower songs, such as "Chance to Survive" which offer up quite a few crushing mid-paced thrash riffs, which show of some good riff transitions and allow vocalist David Michael a chance to show off a few of his impressive cleans. And of course, you can't have killer bay area thrash without insane solos, and the band manages to provide quite a few, generally they're fairly clean shreds, but "Caged and Shackled" supplies the album's required amount of guitar squealing.

The low end isn't really all that impressive, the bass is quite high in the mix, as is common with Imagika, but the performance isn't particularly good. The drumming is disappointing, Henry Moreno just doesn't really do much, he's just a very standard thrash drummer with little character on offer. There are a few sections where he is clearly given room to let loose a little, but he doesn't.

David Michael is an interesting vocalist; he is a man of contrasts. He tries to perform huge power metal squeals, while delivering his vocals in a punk attitude laden bark. He sings about being on control and general thrash violence and torture fare, and then ends the album with a ballad with lines like "I want to scream does anybody care". He sounds harsh and aggressive one minute, and then quite openly processed the next. There are just a lot of different things going on with him all the time. Sadly, it's not all good. His higher vocals are fairly weak and he struggles to hold notes. And when he does, most of his clean vocals sound far too smooth and well, they don't quite sound real. And with his lyrics, nothing really goes right or wrong there, fairly average, unimpressive thrash lyrics. You can figure out the lyrics to most of the songs just by looking at the titles. Of course, then you've got "Endings", which lyrically isn't great, but still sounds pretty good for the standard 'ballad goes heavy' track, largely due to the vocals in the chorus. Finishing off the vocal approach is the use of gang vocals; luckily, they're used sparingly, and thus maintain their effect.

The sound that this album has is one of the strongest points that it has. It sounds fairly similar to "And So It Burns..." and much better than "Worship." The tone is thick and heavy, but not to the point that the music loses effect, leaving everything nice and rough, with a bit of soul to it. The bands strange pinch harmonic tone was already in use here, and the band was already writing them into songs magnificently. The drums sound a little of the crap side, the bass drums sound weak, but that could also be down to the generally lacklustre performance. Everything is mixed very nicely, though, so you can hear all the instruments with ease. Apart from the drums this album sounds amazing, a perfect middle ground between the rawness of 80s thrash, and the over-production of modern thrash.

Imagika's eponymous debut is probably their best album with the original vocalist. Honestly, the improved vocals of Norman Skinner raise the newer albums a little higher, but this is still a fantastic release, loaded with lots of quality riffs. It's really quite short without the bonus tracks (It is worth hearing Immortal Eyes, but none of the others), which is really the biggest flaw that the album has. It's over very fast, and it really monotone enough to justify a sub 30 minute runtime. Still, highly recommended, one of Imagika's best, and a modern classic.