Suffering Hour

Suffering Hour: Anacrusis' debut album, and an album rather unlike their other ones. There are two ways to look at this album: a stepping stone to future glories, or an awesome thrash album in its own right. Being the indecisive sort that I am, I'd say these are both entirely correct. Suffering Hour isn't quite as brilliant as some of Anacrusis' later work, but it also thrashes like none of their other work, and gives many of its contemporaries in thrash a run for its money. It may not be the same as their other albums, and those albums may indeed be better in places, but in terms of sheer enjoyment from cleverly-executed cerebral thrash, this album is one of the best you'll find.

This is a thrash album, but even when Anacrusis is trying its hardest to thrash, it sounds a good deal more unique than your average Bay Area output of the time. Take the opener, "Present Tense". This song's got it all, and makes for an amazing album opener. It's got an absolutely lethal thrashing riff early on, giving way to a surprisingly catchy chorus I still find myself humming at times, with Kenn Nardi punctuating nearly every line with his trademark screeching. Then we have a spooky atmospheric section, where the album title is dropped over one of my favorite riffs on the entire album: "Suffering hour...Suffering hour...Suffering hour....MY DARKEST, HOUR...IS NOW!". Then, it cycles back into that thrash mainstay of playing the heavy riff more or less unaccompanied, with slowly building drums...then, a pause, Nardi yells something, and we're back into the riff, now with Mike Owen beating his snare like a madman over it. Absolutely electrifying stuff, and far more diverse than most thrash songs.

Anacrusis' lyrical prowess is still half-formed on this, but even half of that prowess is still quite impressive. The sort of angsty cynical misanthropy prevalent in many of the tracks here was years ahead of its time. Plus, they've just got a real way with words. Reading the lyrics, you get the sense of a jaded yet intense prophet on some street corner, yelling out to anybody, or possibly nobody. Occasionally, as in "Fighting Evil" or "A World to Gain", a sort of cautious optimism can show through. There are still some suspect lyrical parts on here (more on that later), but Anacrusis still pull off some tremendous lyrical poetry on Suffering Hour.

While we're on the subject of lyrics, the writer of most of them, Kenn Nardi, deserves special mention here. Past being an extremely good guitarist, lyricist, and songwriter, the guy's a fantastic singer, and turns out a tremendous performance here. Some people aren't a fan of his frequent shrieks, seeming almost random in placement, but I think they're great. They lend a sort of unpredictability to the songs, which already seem to teeter on the brink of insanity at times from various small tempo changes that I don't think are intentional. Nardi's frequent interjections complete that unhinged atmosphere, of four young folks hurtling towards an uncertain future at breakneck speed, yet still holding on for dear life, against all odds seeming to control their course. Not to mention, I'm a sucker for over-the-top vocals that show emotion in general, and Kenn Nardi fits that description like a glove here. Abstract justifications aside, the shrieks just sound cool, and the more of them, the better.

On the drumming side, Mike Owen, between this and Reason, cements himself as the busiest of the three drummers Anacrusis would have over their career. He's not as extremely complex or intricate like the two who came after him, but he plays really fast and pulls off some incredible fills. His sense of tempo also seems a tiny bit shaky at times, but with material as complicated as this, I can't blame him. Flawless playing would probably strip some character from this album. Extreme complexity aside, Owen's sheer stamina on this album is commendable.

Suffering Hour comes with a real epic, and as far as I know the longest song Anacrusis ever did: "Twisted Cross". This song is truly amazing, with a slow ambient section giving way to a thrashing riff, and an awesome chorus (mostly consisting of Nardi screeching "Twisted Cross!" at the top of his lungs) that remains one of the best shout-along sections I've heard in thrash metal. Strangely, "Twisted Cross" isn't the last track on the album, which is a minor knock against the album's score. When you've got an epic, it pretty much always works best as the last track, this is no exception.

Lurking at the end of the album is a cover of "N.I.B", which I must admit is...not very good. I'm not knocking the musicianship, but converting a song from doom to thrash rarely goes well. It's pretty funny when they replace "Lucifer" with "Kenn Nardi" in the chorus, though.

There's one unfortunate thing on this album, that's the primary reason of me having to give it below a 90: that unfortunate thing is the song "Frigid Bitch". This song is, well, bad. It's musically passable, not much more, and has horrendous lyrics that could fit in a Manowar or Pantera song, which is not a good sign. I can't imagine what they were thinking to put this on the album, but it's there, and by far the largest mark against me declaring there to be no bad songs on this album. So close, yet so far...

Also of note are the bonus tracks included on the 2019 Metal Blade reissue, as they're actually quite good (well, aside from the demo of "Frigid Bitch", for reasons already enumerated on). The main riff of "Vulture's Prey" was later used on "Brotherhood", and "Vulture's Prey" does in fact come off as a somewhat thrashier variant of said song with different lyrics. It's no contest that "Brotherhood" is the better song, but I still sometimes come back to "Vulture's Prey", that riff is tremendously good in any context. "Pendulum" is a decent number, not much more to say there. "Apocalypse", though, that song is something special. It has a real, well, apocalyptic air to it, with fantastic lyrics, an incredible main riff, a great chorus, and one of the best solos on the whole album. It would be among the very best on the album were it on the album proper, I can't imagine why it wasn't. Anacrusis themselves realized this when they rerecorded Suffering Hour some decades later, including a rerecorded "Apocalypse" in the main tracklist.

In terms of pure enjoyment I probably like this album slightly more than the two after it, and come back to it frequently for a listen. It's unpolished and imperfect, but it's also a debut album that's better than plenty of bands have managed over an entire discography. And for the people who thought this was highly experimental in 1988, Anacrusis were just getting started.

Highlights: "Present Tense", "Imprisoned", "Twisted Cross"

"We run in circles,
Inside our minds,
With no way out or in...
If we're not careful,
They'll get our souls!
We mustn't let them win!"

Now what in the name of all that is metal do we have here? Suffering Hour, the debut album by a once up-and-coming American outfit called Anacrusis (they even went on tour with Chuck Schuldiner’s legendary band Death in 1993), is a rather baffling affair since it’s really impossible to pigeonhole. The album came out as early as 1988 and, in hindsight, was way ahead of its time. That does not mean it’s a singularly brilliant piece of work, unfortunately, but it sure is an interesting and enjoyable one.

There is just so much stuff going on here stylistically and the band brings so much obvious talent to the table that it’s hard to associate this with any clear-cut genre. Even though Anacrusis once toured with Death, they have precious little to do with death metal. If you absolutely had to classify this, the material on Suffering Hour would probably be best described as technical or progressive thrash metal, yet many of the tracks do not sound like thrash in the traditional sense at all.

Diversity indeed is king on Suffering Hour, and that’s not just from track to track but within most every track as well. Slower, occasionally almost doom-like parts make way for chaotic outbursts of blistering speed, which in turn are interrupted by melodic lead breaks evolving into even more frantic thrash riffing, which then leads to a manic guitar solo followed by even more furious shredding unexpectedly cut short by a brief bass solo, and on and on it goes. The sheer amount of creativity that went into this album is insane and the first two tracks – "Present Tense" and "Imprisoned" – encapsulate this perfectly, the latter in particular taking you on a truly wild ride at about the three-minute mark.

Not every song puts you on a similar roller coaster, with the predominantly slower ones like "Butcher’s Block" and "The Twisted Cross" exhibiting more restraint and even coming off a bit long-winded by comparison. Other tracks are generally shorter and more concise, falling more in the melodic power/speed metal category. Those include the ultra-catchy "A World to Gain" and "Fighting Evil", with choruses so sing-along friendly that they might have made good radio hit-single fodder back in the metal-crazed eighties. Also worth mentioning is "Frigid Bitch", a slowly building eruption of punk-infused violence with lyrics reading like someone’s attempt to get back at their mean ex-girlfriend. Ultimately and mercifully, one of the few things missing on Suffering Hour is a no-frills ballad, and it’s almost puzzling Anacrusis, in spite of their adventurous spirit, didn’t try their hand at that as well.

When talking about how diverse Suffering Hour is, another very important factor in that regard is the performance of vocalist (and guitarist) Ken Nardi. The guy can literally do it all, constantly switching between aggressive thrash shouting, melodic baritone singing and hoarse screaming that comes across almost like a sort of black metal croak. Unfortunately, Nardi’s "black metal" voice bears more resemblance to a mightily pissed-off Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse than a malevolent demon from the fiery pits of the underworld. After all, Nardi was only 19 years old at the time this was recorded and this is where his lack of maturity shows up in a not so good way. He just tries to do too much at times and tends to get a little carried away, particularly on "R.O.T. (Reign of Terror)", where he seems close to veering out of control and the incessant screaming can get a bit tiresome. In all, Nardi does a commendable job and sounds absolutely unique, but his over-enthusiasm can be grating at times.

There are not many, if any, albums that sound like Suffering Hour. This is truly one of a kind, but that does not mean it’s necessarily great in every aspect. The band’s youthful energy and unbridled creativity is certainly refreshing to hear, but they do go a bit overboard at times, resulting in some slightly puerile moments. The hodgepodge of different ideas, the sudden breaks, the frenzied drumming, the somewhat disorganized jumble of riffs and harmonies and solos, and the constantly alternating singing styles sometimes evoke the impression that everything is about to devolve into utter chaos, but in the end and much to their credit, the band always manages to keep everything together and to come up with coherent songs.

Suffering Hour is definitely a highly original and highly entertaining affair and, in many ways, perhaps one of the most extreme and uncompromising efforts you will ever hear.

Choicest cuts: Present Tense, Imprisoned, A World to Gain, Fighting Evil

Rating: 8.0 out of 10 points

I’m quite ashamed to confess that I stayed away from this album for quite some time, being a big fan of the band and all, as I let myself be convinced by a bunch of metal “connoisseurs” that this opus was nothing like the other three instalments, and that I wasn’t going to like it… besides, the album was hard to find in Bulgaria in the early-90’s so I didn’t bother tracking it down. I don’t even want to tell you how long I couldn’t care less about this offering.

Shameful stuff but all got corrected, better late than never, once I read a review of the album in an old Metal Hammer issue some time in the late-90’s; the review was simply too well written to be misleading, describing the music adequately with all its pros and cons, compelling me to get a hold of the album before long. So it turned out that Kenn Nardi and Co. were already fairly capable musicians at this early stage of their career although harbingers of their subsequent, much more entangled progressive elaborations were not as prominently present.

The guys were simply looking for their most fitting face here, becoming inadvertently fascinated with the more brutal vistas that the thrash/proto-death metal hybrid was offering hence the aggressive, at times plain no-bars-held execution. Consequently, Nardy’s unique versatile vocal skills are the most striking feature at this stage the man providing everything from hellish piercing screams to lyrical clean tirades, soaring above the frequently uncompromising musical approach with authority and near-hysterical at times passion. Don’t expect any close emulation music-wise, mind you; the delivery acquires more characteristic parametres from the get-go with the versatile “Present Tense”, a tense... sorry, intense restless shredder with a dark atmospheric vibe, the more complex arrangements suggesting at these newcomers’ (at the time) bigger ambitions. The latter remain in the vicinity thanks to other more contrived propositions (“Imprisoned”, the wayward galloping saga “The Twisted Cross”), but the moment the guys switch on an all-out mosh mode they seldom look back, shattering the listener’s comfort zone with exploding neck-sprainers like “R.O.T.” and “Frigid Bitch”, sparing him/her on the surprisingly moody sombre mid-pacer “Butcher's Block”, this last cut serving as the prototype for some of the guys’ finest creations later, here just roughly sketched and not that assiduously executed.

This is an inspired, youthfully naïve hyper-active recording which reminds of another debut released at the same time, Sadus’ seismic first coming, both albums precursors to some of the progressive/technical thrash metal scene’s most cherished moments. The Sadus bunch were more brutal and less willing to display their already acquired skills, though, which makes the opus here the marginally better option from a strictly musical point-of-view, excluding the sloppily assembled cover of Black Sabbath’s “N.I.B.”, hilariously sped up to match the other material’s more vicious veneer, a miscalculated decision thrown at the end as a trendy gimmick. On the other hand, it could be forgiven, this misguided step the guys in their late teens at the time and already on a pretty proficient level, trying to carve a niche for themselves from the get-go with a less formularized, more individualistic approach to the good old thrash.

If only one could have foreseen at the time how far the band would reach on their future exploits… gradual but inevitable was their ascension to the upper echelons of the progressive thrash movement, the guys leaving their less polished, more brutal roots far behind, ones that were easy to ignore and plain forget by the newer fanbase under the magnanimous presence of the other albums, including the last one (the gigantic 2.5-hour long “Dancing with the Past”) released in 2014 under the Kenn Nardi moniker, comprising new songs only. The man concluded the final, also isolated chapter from the glorious Anacrusis saga as a lone warrior. The album-title an allusion to those early days? Quite possible; I’m sure the man fondly remembers those times when bashing with the utmost intensity was an intentionally chosen stance, the unsophisticated flashes of genius mere promises of a future, loftier repertoire… there were mostly annihilating screams unleashed back then, true, but without them ringing in your ears, giving you nightmares all the way to the waking hour, would you have started the quest for those mythical remedial whispers?

Anacrusis was a band I discovered a few years back when I had a binging addiction on technical thrash metal. I could not get enough of bands like Coroner, Watchtower, Mekong Delta, and every other obscure thrash metal band that showed a real sense of musical proficiency over heaviness. Bands like this are about as rare as they come, and any chance I had to hear a new one I absolutely jumped all over. Enter Anacrusis, the St. Louis Missouri based quartet that supposedly fit right into this movement. Also cue the entrance of their first album, Suffering Hour, which was an extremely difficult album to track down and purchase.

Suffering Hour is without a doubt one of the most unique sounding albums you can find in the vast sea of thrash metal. This is an album that is quite literally unlike most things out there in the way it is constructed, and it's constructed in a manner which is extremely misleading. What I can tell you is while people will try to pass off Suffering Hour as an offering of technical thrash metal, that is something it definitely is not. While Anacrusis do try some weird ideas here, it's far from being anything that technical, and far from being anything that's actually consistently enjoyable.

Anacrusis, like many bands lumped into the technical thrash metal movement of the late eighties and early nineties, I feel like were ahead of their time. They did a lot of things that certain bands nowadays do, but weren't well received and weren't given the credit I feel some of them were legitimately due. In an interesting known fact, Anacrusis stands out as one of the first bands actually use the drop B guitar tuning. Something you hear fairly common nowadays among the majority of metalcore, groove metal, and even certain death metal acts, can be traced all the way back to Anacrusis and their 1988 debut album. The result are riffs that sound extremely eery. This is without a doubt one of the darkest sounding albums I've ever heard riff wise. You'd never guess what downtuning a guitar as low as Anacrusis did can do thrash and speed metal. These riffs in principle are no more technical or that different from a lot thrash metal riffs, but because they are so low tuned, they sound incredibly dark. It's what I'd imagine would be like if you played doom metal with any bit of speed, call it "doom thrash" if you will.

Part of that also I think I can credit to the vocal work of Ken Nardi. When I listen to this album now, and see the foggy image of a cathedral on the cover, I think that this isn't some guy from Missouri singing. Instead, I think it's the Hunchback of Notre Dame. This guy has an absolutely weird sounding voice. It varies from this really ghostly sounding series of operatic type stuff, gruffy sort of shouts, to this extremely shrill that's almost banshee-esque falsetto shrieking that would have King Diamond quivering in his boots. Most of the choruses are reasonably pretty good sounding, especially that of "Fighting Evil", which really stands out on it's own well. When you throw that in with the low tuned riffs and the lyrics covering all manner of somewhat Slayer esque themes such as anti religion, torture, insanity, and death, the creepy factor only seems to rise.

Unfortunately, things really start to go amiss after this. The problem begins with the fact that Anacrusis, despite what people say, are fundamentally not that technical or even that progressive of a band. While they are rather avant garde for the thrash metal genre, there are simply too many things in common with other thrash metal efforts to make this album stand out on it's own right. Ken Nardi, while playing up the two vocal styles, it's not like he does them well. A lot of his vocals just seem completely all over the place, not knowing what style to use at what moment. Most of the time also, his vocals are just way too fast to sound anything more than a chihuaha with laringitis. The riffs, while downtuned and dark, are far too rudimentary and feature a lot of the same palm muted chugging you can find on any Slayer album. That gets old really fast, whether it's Slayer, Anacrusis, or any band for that matter. If you cant' make memorable sounding riffs, chances are a listener is probably not going to come back to the music. And it's not like Anacrusis necessarily has the musicianship to make up for the lack of strong compositional prowess either. Nardi and Ken Heidbreder aren't exactly mind blowingly great lead guitarists. They're both about on the lead playing level of Dave Mustaine and Kirk Hammet, playing a lot of very fast pentatonics and some harmonic scales, but really nothing other than that. Bassist John Emery's lines are rudimentary and plain, and drummer Mike Owen's beat sound like the outtakes from a Lars Ulrich drum session. All in all, the band doesn't exactly impress me musically with their talents they way some of the bands they're grouped with do.

The other issue with this album is the mix. It does have the somewhat redeeming quality of really playing well into Nardi's vocals, with a lot of excessive chorus and reverb to make him sound that much more dissonant and ghostly. However, in nearly every other way, this mix isn't good at all. The guitars have no meatiness to them and the sound just carries way too much in the riffs (though it does make a rather nice lead tone for the guitar solos). The bass sounds way too grindy and distorted. By far the worst though is the drums. The cymbals are nearly completely invisible in the mix, the double bass sounds like muted horse hooves on a cobblestone road, and the snare lacks any sense of bite or punch at all. I don't know what exactly Anacrusis shooting for when they mixed Suffering Hour, but it doesn't exactly play well into the listener's favor for a thrash metal album.

Suffering Hour is a deceptive album in the grand scheme of thrash metal. It does some things that modern bands are doing a lot of today such as the low guitar tunings and weird vocals, and in some ways they make this album truly a one in it's own stand out. But the fact is, Anacrusis does not execute very well and does not have the musicianship or compositional skill to make Suffering Hour stand out. If you're into finding unique, one of a kind sounding music, this album is definitely something to check out. Otherwise, brace yourself for a good hour or so of suffering.

Anacrusis isn't exactly a band that has gone down in history as essential in thrash metal. Shit, I had no idea who they were until a few months ago. After hearing a few songs off Suffering Hour I couldn't help but go back and repeatedly listen to "Imprisoned". That track alone made this band stand out for me. The album though is very unusual. The production has a very lonesome feel because of the amount of reverb on it. It makes the songs themselves sound very distant and dark. Every instrument on here is clear and mixes very well with each other. Vocalist Kenn Nardi's voice ranges amazingly from piercing screeches to quick yells and even to regular singing. One thing this album is bursting with is emotion, especially on "Present Tense" and "Imprisoned". Very melodic and moving even. Nardi isn't very impressive as an actual singer, but it's still tolerable.

Another great thing about this album that many fail to do is keep me interested the whole way through. I really dislike long albums mostly for the fact that it's usually the same bullshit throughout the entire record. It could start off great but lose all of my attention by the fourth or fifth song simply because it just doesn't mix it up and keep me entertained. This is a generally long album but it doesn't stick to the same shit which honestly caught me off guard. I expected the entire album to be depressing, emotion-driven, sung thrash metal, like the 2 openers. But it shows its progression that I'm assuming would come on later albums (this so far is the only I've heard from Anacrusis). They even completely eliminate the earlier feel of the album on a couple of great thrashers including "Frigid Bitch" and "Fighting Evil". Then "Twisted Cross" comes along with its slow and ballad-like opening, and still manages to kick your ass for 7 whole minutes. It's a very heavy album too. The instruments are tuned real low so every open note just hits you like an oncoming bus. That just adds to the intensity of it and probably wouldn't be the same without it.

The lyrics are amazing. They're extremely poetic and written as if they were literature. With a song title like "Frigid Bitch" I wasn't expecting a sorrowful, disturbing, intelligently written song about killing, but that's exactly what it is. And it's still incredibly poetic. On every song here the lyrics are as moving as the music. This entire album just kind of destroyed my expectations, and I don't mean that in a bad way. It's different, very different and I look forward to hearing many more like it.

"Suffering Hour" is to me, one of the greatest thrash albums to ever be released. The riffs in this album range from high speed, thrash assaults, to slower, eerie grooves. There are parts that have melody, and parts that are just straight forward thrash.

The tuned down guitars go along great with Ken Nardi's screams. Ken's overall performance on "Suffering Hour" is superb. From clean, soft vocals, to shrill screams, his performance is amazing.

The guitar and bass work on the album is very reminiscent of Coroner and other technical thrash bands. Ridiculously low tuned intruments lend to the eerieness of the album.

Parts of the album can be kind of boring. However, there is always a heavy riff soon after every boring part. And the speed metal assault continues. I guarantee, fans of avant-garde will be very pleased by many of the slower bits.

Many fans of thrash consider this to be Anacrusis' only good album, since they went for a more progressive aproach on later albums. Even though I prefer the sounds of "Suffering Hour", I still very much enjoy their later material. Most fans of technical thrash will enjoy this album. I recomend to anyone who is into thrash, to pick up this album and give it a try. It is greatly underrated and should no longer be over looked.

Anacrusis has quickly become one of my favourite bands, virtually from the moment I grabbed "Present Tense" off of the band's website. I was quite fond of it from the instant I heard it, this dirty, loose, and highly original thrasher, riffs afire, eerie spoken break ("suffering hour.... suffering hour.... AAWWAAGGOWWW!"), almost Sound of Perseverence-era Chuck Schuldiner vocals, big power metal harmony solos, slightly underproduced but very cleanly recorded... I was in love. I'd heard of Anacrusis previously of course, Manic Impressions and Screams and Whispers being considered groundbreaking progressive metal masterworks (obviously not so here, but whatever) and I was a little baffled at how the relatively direct Suffering Hour tied into this prog-thrash label. Then I heard Reason...

In any case, the album being discussed here is a minor classic, the flaming ignorant youth of the band before they went off onto experimental tangents. This album is very direct, conventional song structures (for thrash), the usual instruments, the usual hot solos. However, Anacrusis is certainly more downtuned than the average thrasher, a move they undertook in order to accomodate the unique vocals of one Ken Nardi. Furthermore they seem to be a rather democratic band, no burying the bass player here or songwriting domination (Nardi does do the lion's share of the lyrics however) to be seen.

It's slightly disjointed at times, the band not sticking to any particular feel, a result of the fact that these songs were gleaned from a number of previous bands that the various musicians had played in as well as a number written as a group by Anacrusis. This causes a few songs to stick out as being at odds with the rest of the album ("Frigid Bitch", "Twisted Cross"), although the intensity of the performances are a comforting constant.

Nardi is as unique a vocalist as I've ever come across, near black metal howls ("R.O.T", and even more so on the demo version), slinky predatory crooning ("A World to Gain"), and some almost Akerfeldt-like melodic sections that certainly provide a contrast to the general throat-shredding mayhem elsewhere ("Fighting Evil"). The man has dropped the King Diamond-like high pitched vocals that popped up on occasion on the Annihilation Complete demo, and the change is definitely for the better. Furthermore it should be mentioned that some of Nardi's lyrics are amongst the best I've ever seen in a metal act, this aspect doing nothing but improve over the subsequent records, Nardi certainly displaying a gift for empathy and poetry (yet oddly not for song titles that don't reek of cliché) that is virtually unmatched, at times perhaps even better than Metallica in certain areas.

On an album full of triumphs my favourite song is easily "Fighting Evil". I love how the song just sorta bounces into the room and starts overturning furniture, a short speedball whipped through the living room window, riff inspiring synchopated headbangs from all stripes, brilliantly catchy vocal melodies leading into a melodic pre-chorus that is amongst the best in the business. The solo is brilliant, copying the up-beat riff and then noodling about for such a length of time that you have to wonder how Nardi could claim they weren't that great of players at that point. 'Cos this song is awesome.

Some other highlights include the rest of the album. Okay, that's a little cheap, and I wouldn't cop out on my loyal fans (both of them). "Butcher's Block" combines some excellent melodic parts with pounding, labyrinthine riff-mad metal, while "A World to Gain" is intelligently paced and filled with some excellent emotional lyrics and the crunchy break from hell. Also, "Frigid Bitch" has the most insane ride-out ever, Nardi literally frothing at the mouth as he spews some bad-intentioned lyrics in an unintelligible freak-out screech.

There are a few weak points of little importance. Their cover of "N.I.B" is godawful, which makes me glad that it's a bonus track, and there are a few clichés musically , an example being "Twisted Cross" which sounds like a bushleague attempt at "Fade to Black" or "Heathen's Song"( temporally later, but the point remains). "Annihilation Complete-Disembowelled" never did much for me either.

Those niggling points aside, very good album from Anacrusis, excellent individual performances and charming innocence veritably pouring out of the plastic (assuming, like me, you burned the CD) and pooling in molten puddles somewhere in the inner ear canal, in a good way. Stay tuned for highly experimental, and in my opinion, better records to come.

Stand-Outs: "Fighting Evil", "Present Tense", "A World to Gain"