Portrait of a Hanged Man

Imagika is a band that has been around for nearly 20 years and has remained stylistically very consistent. And being one that came about at the height of the decline of the art that we all know as heavy metal circa 1993, they are miraculously untouched by most of the characteristics that define 90s American thrash metal practices. The hypnotically repetitive chug riffs, the pseudo-tough guy vocal posturing with latent grunge tendencies, the over-processed and mechanical sounding guitar distortion, and the general notion of just being pissed off for the mere sake of it are not to be found here. There are maybe some occasional references to the better aspects of Nevermore here and there, but for the most part this is a good balance of traditional thrash and USPM influences that are reinterpreted through a modern production.

To put it bluntly, “Portrait Of A Hanged Man” is a loosely methodical but otherwise complex exercise in riff bludgeoning, so much so that it actually overdose things a bit. There have been a number of bands to come out of the Bay Area in the past that exhibited a somewhat similar sound, but here Imagika seems hell bent on piling as many riffs as possible into each song, in somewhat of a progressive fashion. Even within the confines of a single section there is so many varying parts that things get pretty hard to follow. In similar fashion, vocalist Norman Skinner does his damnedest to sound like a veritable jack of all trades, throwing in a mishmash of dirty shouts, Halford-like wails, Warrel Dane bellows and even a handful of death metal barks to further throw things into sheer pandemonium.

With all the elements considered, this is the sort of album that is fun to listen to, but isn’t quite catchy or memorable enough to fully realize its own potential. Certain songs such as “Keep The Wolves At Bay” and “My Final Hour” are a bit easier to follow and closer to actual songs rather than a full out display of how many ways the guitarist can pummel the ears in a 5 minute duration. “A God No More” is the only thing on here that is overtly catchy, and it’s a mostly acoustic ballad and instrumental which features some fancy lead work out of King Diamond axe man Andy La Rocque. “The Hit” is also a fairly solid song, albeit a bit heavy on differing ideas, and actually comes the closest to actually accenting the power metal side of their power/thrash style.

While somewhat flawed, even the weaker elements of this album are worthy of listening to, it’s just a tiny bit overdone, almost like a steak that has been cooking just a few minutes too long on the grill. This is something that is worthy of the time of most people who ate up the riff madness of the 80s Bay Area scene and were still okay with the rebirths of returning bands such as Death Angel and Testament over the past couple of years. Sadly, after a good 17 year run maintaining a once thought dead art form, Imagika self-destructed and is now relegated to the pages of thrash history. Nevertheless, this is a band whose work should be given a second look, though this album should probably be the 3rd or 4th pick of newcomers.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on March 22, 2011.

Apart from the Worship album, Imagika have been an extremely consistent band. Changes in line-up have never had much influence on quality, and now with the release of Portrait of a Hanged Man the band offers up another quality slab of power/thrash, this time without long time bassist Elena Repetto. It isn’t quite up to the standard of their three premiere standard albums, Imagika, And so it Burns and My Bloodied Wings, but it easily stands up as the next best album they've released.

To those who have heard the band at all since Skinner joined, not much has changed, thrash riffs and power metal riffs swarm around some of the most versatile vocals in the business. There's some interesting harmonic use, as well as a bunch of fast and energetic soloing and a couple of songs with softer sections, and of course the production is the exact same one they've had for the last 4 albums. It's a good formula, and it's the main reason why they struggle to put out anything poor. Portrait of a Hanged Man doesn't change the formula, but it does have a new focus and energy to it. Feast for the Hated and Devil's on Both Sides were both a little bit on the tame side of things, Imagika's 2010 release does not fall into this trapping. It's fast, thrashy and violent, it's even faster and more aggressive than My Bloodied Wings, and if you're looking for something to carry on the thrash energy and power, there's no need to waste your time listening to Warbringer and Lich King, this album delivers all the thrash attitude you could ever need, while sounding unique.

What holds this back from the quality if the bands best release are the weaker songs, they are really not up to scratch. Songs like Scared to Death, Wolves and G.H.B are easily up to the level of the best songs they've ever done, but the lesser songs really drag this down. At 53 minutes, boring numbers such as One Word, Portrait or Final Hour could have been easily tossed away for the betterment of the album, but sadly they're still here. The do add some variation to the otherwise fast thrashy content, but the gains are outweighed by the drawbacks, and songs like A God No More easily give the variation needed while not dropping the quality.

The added energy is a nice plus, the band has always had a good ear for thrash riffs, and this album is largely devoid of chug riffs or simple power chords which have made up an annoyingly large portion of their music of late. Instead the band piles on the thrash so deep the power metal side of things gets a bit obscured; this is not a bad thing though, because most of these riffs kick ass. The production is the same as the last few albums, so all the pinch harmonic riffs and noodling solos all pack the necessary punch. The riffs certainly impress more than the soloing, which serve little purpose than to give the listener a quick moment of shredding, there aren't many which stand out from the pack. New bassist Jim Pegram takes over the job admirably, he doesn't do much interesting stuff, but neither did Elena, if anything he is more noticeable than she was. As always the bass sound is pretty good and clear, but lacks the ideas to really be of much importance. Likewise, the drumming under utilizes a very good sound and stays comfortably in the background playing simple thrash beats or power metal styled double bass.

Along with the awesome riffs, the band's big drawcard is of course Norman Skinner. If you haven't heard this guy before, look forward to mid range clean vocals suited perfectly to Imagika's brand of melodic thrash metal, piercing falsettos, massive screams and guttural grunts and growls are all in his huge range of techniques. He performs all of them with a high level of proficiency, and is truly one of the only vocalists who could do this band's unique style justice. He doesn't add anything new to his repertoire, but his timing is the best that it has been, and seems to be showing a little more restraint in these styles. Anyone who was annoyed by him changing styles 2 or 3 times in single line shouldn’t really worry, apart from the fantastically over the top Halo of Flies he keeps his style changes to a minimum, which helps add to the impact of the harsher vocals and falsettos.

Portrait of a Hanged Man is probably Imagika's 4th best release, and is clearly better than the albums below it, and shows the band pretty close to at their best. The band doesn't do anything new for themselves, but the band itself is so different to everything else around it doesn't really hurt it much. It is kind of bloated, and it probably only has 3 or 4 really great songs on it, but they are all as good as the band can do.