Think This

Toxik was always a precocious band whose career never seemed to truly reach its destination. Following the refreshing, innovative tech-thrash World Circus, the band went back to the lab to curate an even more refined, sharper, and more intricate set of tracks for 1989's Think This. Swapping out the vocalist for Charles Sabin and adding a guitarist, this record shoots higher in ambition, and absolutely hits its mark.

This album, as hinted at by its all-time great cover art, is about control and the overstepping of the government. Normally, metal bands fail to really stick to a cohesive plot for the majority of the album, but Toxik does a good job of staying on topic for most of this record. The riffs are generally catchier and have a tad bit more complexity to them, and the vocals are truly phenomenal. Sabin reaches some incredible high notes with a hint of vibrato on the mammoth title track and the adrenalized "Spontaneous." The band's playing is incredibly precise and the drumming in particular drives these songs with a frenetic, start-stop energy that is very hard to replicate.

Even the more tender "There Stood the Fence" sounds like a Skid Row ballad but somehow works, given the subtle rhythm embellishments that propel the song past its hair metal tendencies. Toxik's ability to shift effortlessly between different rhythms without losing the core skin of a song is spectacular, and makes for some really amazing material on this album. Josh Christian connects the dots on a lot of these songs with his harmonic, multi-tempo, sweep picking solos that are unique from track to track and add so much character. There are very few things to complain about on this album, it has everything you could want from a technical thrash record. The riffs are great, the vocals are great, and the songwriting is a cut above almost anything this side of Coroner.

"Technical Arrogance" has some pretty interesting synthesizer flourishes, something you don't hear too often on a thrash album, but it goes to show the musicianship that Toxik possesses. They aren't just fantastic songwriters, they know what constitutes good music. Using synthesizers on a song that sounds like a cagey garage rendition of melodic thrash (with wicked time signatures and brilliant playing, of course) is creative, for sure, but also risky. Perhaps encouraged by the positive reception (although minimal) about their debut, Toxik worked with numerous different influences and sonic expeditions, and they nailed every single idea they laid out there. Even though I've never been too keen on thrash bands covering rock songs, the "Out on the Tiles" cover works well enough that the album still flows smoothly and sounds original.

The band's lyrics are generally slanted adversarial, and the lead singer comes off hungry and inflamed, even on softer songs like "Machine Dream." As he punches at religious scam artists on "In God" and proclaims his criticisms of the government on song after song, the palpable energy and devotion to the cause seeps through the music intensely. The well-produced sound of this record adds a pristine edge to it that lends these critiques even more credibility, and the band's pretentious attitude is far from draining on this album, it actually helps to take their sound seriously. If they're cramming this much into each four- or five-minute song, they've got to be saying something right? And they absolutely are- this is one of the greatest technical thrash albums ever.

By 1989 the term Techno-Thrash (technical thrash) was all over the metal press. More and more bands that had the technical chops abandoned their aggressiveness to give way to musical explorations as a means of adding some kind of superficial substance. 'Think This' is a prime example of that.

Toxik's first album 'World Circus' was a thrash tornado where technicality is evident but doesn't dominate the overall work. With 'Think This' Toxik comes across as a completely different band where its priorities have shifted. The songs are no longer riff driven but rather a combination of progressive and jazz sensibilities.

The first song kicks in and you are left confused wondering what happened to the aggressive nature of the band. 'Greed' is up next and things seem to feel much better - until the verse starts. Is this early Fates Warning we're listening to? Same theme with the following songs. The vocals seems to desperately try to escape anything that resembles thrash or speed metal and turn the songs into progressive rock. Sometimes sounding like Rush, but failing to establish any of the key ingredients that make good progressive music exciting.

There is also a pretty sad attempt to make a rock ballad with 'There Stood The Fence'. Sounding a bit like Skid Row but failing to capture any emotional context. Nothing changes for the rest of the album. Sometimes there are brilliant moments that remain unexploited because the vocal melodies and chord structures kill any momentum. Listen to the beginning of 'Black and White' or the ending of 'In God' for proof that they were still able to churn out amazing riffs but completely failing to capitalise on them.

'Shotgun Logic' could have been one of the best thrash songs of the decade if it didn't get ultimately ruined by those awful vocal lines. And basically that is the theme of the album and it's fairly consistent throughout.

Toxik with 'Think This' as well as many other releases of that era signified the end of thrash. What started out as a fistful of metal, ended up a diluted splash of musical masturbation. The fans who were after the thrill of the genre of '83-'86 were jumping on to the death metal bandwagon. Until some kids in Norway decided that they'd have enough of entire scenes losing the plot about what extreme music is about.

Toxik’s sophomore effort is not as aggressive as their first album, World Circus. Both records are technical but songwriting is more sophisticated and a little less repetitive in this one. Besides, the tunes are more memorable, powerful and meaningful on Think This. Production is a little better too: guitars’ sound is more defined, bass stands out more and the final mix has more weight overall. Lyrically the album dwells within the same dystopic and nihilistic topics, the possibility of a power in the dark that decides everything in our lives while we just play their game.

In terms of composition, we see more emphasis on slow parts like acoustic arpeggios or mid paced heavy breaks that feature odd time structures and rhythms that sound “out of place”. There are speed metal parts as usual but they tried to add different shades, like in the classic song There Stood the Fence. The use of acoustic nickel wounded guitars, slower tempos and a ballad feel is a clear example of that. Despite the refined composition, fast double bass drum sections are super bad ass and mean, and there's a nice balance between both. The intro of Technical Arrogance displays a nice futuristic section, very progressive, that reminded me a lot of Rush. There are some riffs that have a hard rock edge, specially mid paced ones, that blend perfectly with the high pitched vocals.

Production as I said is a little better, which perfectly fits the refined composition. Drums sound nice and heavy, with lots of reverberations. Bass drums are not massive, they lack a little bit of definition but you can feel them running in the fast parts, so they work. The snare has a big personality and weight, you can feel it right in your pineal gland drilling. Cymbals’ level is OK, it doesn't outshine the strings. The bass guitar tone is pretty bright, the use of a pick also gives a metallic edge to it. Guitars are presented distorted, clean and acoustic. Their distortion is pretty rough and aggressive, sharp and heavy, not very thick but does the job. The vocals are very high pitched, there are vibratos everywhere and the vocalist never sounds out of tune. He performs amazingly.

To summarize, this album is an exemplary model of the style, I wouldn't say it's better than its predecessor because their differences make them incomparable, as one seeks aggression and the other progression. Both are fairly technical though but this is the progressive brother, so take that into account.

If there's a single phrase that could be used to described metal music in the late 80s, it would be "a total mind job", and not merely because of the up and coming progressive strain that was being forwarded by the likes Fates Warning and a few others. Left and right (though mostly left) were thrash metal bands that shifted from freaking out the masses with their dark imagery and horrific lyrics to pontificating about politics and the environment, and perhaps further hastened the ongoing generational divide between thrash and death metal. But if there was a single album that truly embodied both the musical and lyrical shift that was underway at the close of the 80s, it's Toxik's widely lauded sophomore effort "Think This", which takes a similarly dark and cynical view of human politics to that of Queensyrche's "Operation: Mindcrime", but in a much more generalized and introspective way, not to mention a far more musically intricate and metallic one as well.

While not as overt of a concept album with named characters as the aforementioned 1988 Seattle grown nod to George Orwell, this album carries a lot of trappings that make it function more as an extended drama than a collection of singles strung together into a singular story. Recurring synthesizer and acoustic guitar themes give an ominous feel of going in circles, which is further bolstered by repeated cuts to several television samples that interplay with the various subjects of each individual song. In essence, Toxik managed to adopt the same sort of rabid political activism of Nuclear Assault and have transformed it into something much more subtle, something that truly impacts a person with any degree of interest in the subject with an intelligent and methodical approach. Likewise, the singularity of newly recruited and short-lived front man Charles Sabin, save a few tastefully placed choral harmonies and gang shouts, keeps this album nestled within an accessible thrash metal paradigm, though Sabin's over-the-top, high pitched delivery carries a heavy resemblance to the neurotic and almost inhuman character of Ray Adler's vocal work on Fates Warning's "No Exit".

But for all its heavy attention to peripheral detailing, the true charm of this album is that it manages to maintain a solid, thrashing core while straddling a number of fences separating said style from the more archaic power/speed sound of bands like Helstar and Agent Steel, along with the quirky musical twists that had begun to grow out of Queensryche's "Rage For Order" and Fates Warning's "Awaken The Guardian". Acoustic passages are fairly common, and a full fledged ballad in "There Stood The Fence" definitely hints at a strong influence outside of traditional thrash quarters, even when compared with the occasional usage of similar devices by Nuclear Assault, but it still comes off as too frenetic and flashy to share the same territory with the likes of Leatherwolf or Accept on one end, or Fates Warning on the other, despite some obvious common influences. When hearing a lot of the neck-crushing sections that come and go at rapid intervals on the likes of "Black And White" and "Greed", it's difficult to miss the clear Slayer and Exodus influences that have been interwoven with all the other musical devices at work.

Much like a number of late 80s releases, "Think This" is not quite the same sort of beast that most would tend to associate with thrash metal, as it has almost as many deviations from the traditions laid forth by the founding fathers of the style both in Toxik's native New York and on the West Coast. It's impossible to mistake what is being heard on here with anything that came out of Anthrax or Heathen, though it comes a lot closer to resembling the less extreme character of said bands when measured against the embryonic death metal character of Slayer, Possessed, to speak nothing for the Florida scene that was beginning to come about at this juncture. It's appeal is more directly in line with the progressive stream of 80s metal typified by Fates Warning, yet it's presented in a much more polished way than anything said band did before their commercial shift on "Perfect Symmetry" while still being stylistically closer to the earlier, rawer sound. Comparisons to the likes of Crimson Glory are also not completely out of line, though said band never mixed riffs that sound almost intense enough to have been heard on Death Angel's debut in with all the acoustic largess they were known to occasionally tout. It's truly an epic, progressive undertaking by a band that discovered a truly unique niche within the nightmarish world of political doublethink and the flashy technical craze of 1989.

Months back I was searching for a band that contained helium high pitched clean vocals, fast intense technical guitar riffs and political/social issues lyrics.

I have found it! One has to sit there and think why is this band practically unknown? This album was made by geniuses and it's the closest to perfection you can get. Even the whole idea behind the music (although some may not agree) but to me this is far from fantasy I literally think these guys spoke the truth as far as the politics and problems with society goes. Also the production in my opinion is almost spot on, the guitar leads lack that crunchy warm sound that we all like, it sounds cold and like it's played in echo. But I guess if you're going to aim for the classical lightning fast playing it is perfect.

The vocals are what I dig the most on this album, Charles Sabin really has a great range. When you listen carefully you can tell he doesn't force it. In fact it sounds like his voice comes out easily with no effort, yet at the same time very powerful. He uses both cheat and head voice or mixed voice. He can make his head register sound almost identical to his chest voice which is really amazing and difficult to do. The vocals really don't sound thrash metal, in fact it sounds more like a hair metal vocalist joined a thrash metal band, but it is perfect for this album and it's what I really was looking for.

The instrumentation is absolutely incredible, the guitar riffs are absolutely amazing. Try learning a riff like the one in Machine Dream, I dare you. If you're a somewhat good guitar player it will take you months to learn. I wonder if Josh Christian and John Donnelly both created the riffs together or if Josh created them and then showed them to John. Either way they are awesome. I often think that Josh Christian is the most underrated guitarist in metal history. Every time I meet someone who has heard of Toxik they say Josh Christian is one of the best metal guitarist they have even heard. The leads are beyond amazing, It's every guitarists dream to reach Christian's level. Every song contains an amazing long guitar solo sometimes even a little acoustic classical guitar break here and there. Josh Christian pretty much mixes every style of playing possible in his solos, classical, blues scales, jazz you name it, puts them all together with extreme accuracy and speed yet at the same time not too exaggerated. In other words his playing is very technical and technically perfect. The bass playing always gets over shadowed by the guitar and drums but if you're a bass playing you'll love Brain Bonini's playing. Awesome technical bass playing that even sometimes when the guitar does a few fast notes between beat signatures the bass notes follow the guitar at exact speed which is amazing. Tag Leger's drum playing is very intense fast and technical, the perfect drummer for this album in my opinion, lots of strange beat signatures and awesome double bass drumming thrown it.

If you like highly technical thrash metal with awesome helium high vocals this is a must have. No this is a must have for every metal fan. NO better yet! this is a must have for music fans in general. This is the closest to perfection you can get.

For years, I'd always given the title of "most overrated thrash album" to Dark Angel's only legit claim to notoriety, Darkness Descends. Over time, I've been forced to reevaluate my selection. Darkness Descends is often hailed as a masterpiece despite it having nearly nothing going for it outside of a completely rabid intensity. No doubt the album is fast and unhinged, but with a middling vocal performance and unmemorable riffs, I'd always seen it as the hyperactive little cousin to much more memorable and (rightly) visible albums released that same year like Pleasure to Kill and Reign in Blood.

But despite me finding it overrated, I still recognize why it's so universally adored. I acknowledge the merit in the completely crazed performance, no matter how inconsequential the songs end up to me. I get it.

Think This? I don't get it.

I was introduced to the East Coast thrash maniacs, Toxik, via their 1987 debut, World Circus, thanks to a recommendation that I would like them based on how much I like Realm's Endless War. I fell in love with World Circus pretty quickly, with its completely shitnards bonkers approach to songwriting and the concept of restraint. It was loaded with Josh Christian's high octane thrash riffs and Mike Sanders's completely inhuman shrieks, and with the help of the great songwriting it all managed to coagulate in such a way that ended up being one of the most memorable albums of the extraordinarily specific "melodic technical thrash with a high pitched squealy vocalist" subniche that seemed to be blooming around this time in metal's history.

But let's be real here, their follow up, the much lauded Think This, is dialed back. It's less ridiculous, less over the top, more restrained, and more... well, boring. This is an attempt at maturity, but not the good kind. It's a good maturity when you grow up enough to realize that everything you believed as a 15 year old was fucking stupid, it's a bad maturity when Metallica decides thrash is below them and they'd rather make dad rock. This is Toxik jumping straight from Kill 'em All to Load. I keep seeing terms like "progressive" and "intelligent" thrown around when praising this album to high heaven, and while they aren't wrong, they seem to manifest in all the least interesting ways. The previously straightforward yet absurdly passionate riffs are now more precise and surgical than before. This could have been a really cool thing, but it's all dialed back in the sense that the fire they used to carry is almost entirely sapped in favor of this herky-jerky, mechanical guitar playing. That crazed lunacy is absent in favor of a cold, bereft approach.

At the same time, I understand that that was the point, and that it fit conceptually with the themes of the album. This is late 80s Big Brother/Reaganomics thrash at it's finest. The themes of looming nuclear war and the destruction of mankind with the simple flick of a switch and greed and inhumanity and all that happy crap are thrown to the forefront, hammering you over the head with the whole "evils of the government" stuff that every thrash band seemed to be getting off on during the late 80s. This is fine, I have no qualms with the themes, but I feel like the more lifeless album was a result of the band trying to sonically match the concepts they were presenting. But this is thrash, technical and progressive as it may be, the music doesn't lend itself to such a dry, barren production. This shit needs life, and the simple fact that it isn't overloud or brickwalled doesn't mean it isn't suffocatingly dry.

Musically, I can admit there isn't anything wrong with Think This when standing on it's own. I'm sure prog fans can love the hell out of this for how technical tracks like "Technical Arrogance" can be, and also for how calm and soothing the ballad, "There Stood the Fence" is. Personally, I hate that fucking ballad. It sounds so sappy and weak and out of place in what is otherwise a pretty rocking album (as middling as it may be). It throws the whole pace out of whack, especially when it's bookended by an ohrwurm in "Black and White" and the absolute best track on the album in "Spontaneous". Yeah I should clarify that, I don't hate this album. I think it's overrated to hell and lacks the intangibles that made World Circus so fun, but there are things I like. "Spontaneous" is by far the best track, with an infectious chorus featuring gang shouts, a fast paced main riff, and rather impressive vocal acrobatics from Charles Sabin. The parts where the band takes a more traditional approach come across so much better than the needlessly noodly stop-start parts as well, hence why I love "Spontaneous" and "Shotgun Logic" the most.

Since I brought up Sabin in that last post, I feel I really need to address some quibbles I have with he and the rabid fans of this album. Namely the fact that he's mediocre as can be. I don't deny his ability to hit a zanily stratospheric falsetto, but everything else is so goddamn average that the mere existence of them bothers me. I mean, Sanders wasn't anything special either, but he wasn't going for this clean, melodic performance. He was an unhinged wildman, Paul Baloff on helium, so his technically "eh" performance was forgivable since he had so much character. Sabin's mid range notes might as well be him talking with a vibrato, and sometimes I could swear he gets possessed by 1986-era Joey Belladonna because he just wails on notes that sound... wrong. Like they're flat, he should be juuuust a semitone higher and it'd sound fine. Hell, on "Spontaneous" (a legitimately awesome track that I adore, I should remind you all), he sounds atonal as fuck during the chorus. Actually, I think that's my main problem with him. It feels like he's wandering out of key all the time, he sings like a really slow Kerry King solo. Listen to "Wir Njn 8/in God" or "Black and White", tell me you don't hear this at all. The latter song is catchy and all, but I don't necessarily feel that it's for the best reasons. I get that dull, descending one-phrase chorus stuck in my head whenever I listen to this album, which is more often than I'd care to because I'm always trying to convince myself that I just don't understand how great it is yet. The more I listen to the disjointed, overly technical riffs coupled with the inconsequential songwriting and Sabin's weird warble, the more I just cement my position that Think This is... well kinda shitty.

I admit this may be a case of me knocking this album down a couple pegs simply because I liked the previous one so much, but fuck how could I not? Think This lacks nearly everything that made the previous album so entertaining. There's no vibrancy or life to this album, it's a strange automaton instead of this wacky carnival explosion that World Circus was. I understand that Toxik was trying to take themselves in a different direction here, so the fact that it's different shouldn't surprise me, nor should I see it as a failure on a technical level, since they did succeed at making the much more oppressive, cerebral album they'd set out to. But... but damn they just aren't as good at this. Sabin's vocals irritate the hell out of me and I'll never understand why he's so universally revered, especially since this is the only album he was ever featured on, across any band. Christian's riffs are good but have almost zero staying power and are often weird for the sake of weirdness instead of the sake of flow. I like bits of it, the bass playing is impressive and the solos are wild, and the straightforward bits are good, but there're just so many attempts at cleverness and convoluted oddities that just fall flat that I can neither enjoy this album fully, nor can I comprehend why nearly every other thrash fan on the planet can. If this herky-jerky, broken, front loaded album with a tone deaf wailer who just happens to have crazy high range is really among the best thrash has to offer, then I'm afraid I'll have to turn in my leather jacket and cut my hair, because this just is not for me.


Originally written for http://lairofthebastard.blogspot.com/

Pretty interesting album cover I must say. Anyway, I think it's perdant to give a bit of background on the band. Toxik hails from Peekskill, New York. They formed in 1985, and then disbanded in 1992; to then re-unite in 2007. Their first album "World Circus" was released in '87, and was released on roadrunner; [at the time roadRACER] as was "Think This in '89". A short tour was supposed to happen in 2007, but was cancelled due to poor management. They are now currently writing new material and looking for a new bassist.

Know Toxik now? Yea. Cool.

I walked into this album with no hope at all. I heard that it was a progressive-speed-thrash metal album from the late 80s, and from an obscure band like this; it kind of spelled disaster; but i gave it a try anyway.

*Note I NEVER mention any songs at ALL during a review I don't want to skew your experience*

Right off the bat I was pleasantly surprised, the quality of the production on this album was great. Roadrunner releases from this time period always had awesome production, so right off the bat there was hope. As you progress through this album you will find that all the songs are incredibly unique, and full of mind bending riffing. To me this is what is most important about thrash metal in general; is the quality of the riffing; and this album is chalk full of them. There are definitely songs on here that will make your head bob involuntarily.

The riffs are not your run of the mill 80's thrash riffing either, they are definitely interesting and fresh sounding; even after all these years. [this was shocking] The guitar is definitely heavily influenced by progressive overtones, but not to the point that it becomes overly technical and they lose their charm. The solo's are also very memorable, and will have you playing air guitar in no time. Toxik definitely had some very competent guitar players. The solos are not just those shredding for the sake of shredding solos either, they really truly fit the songs, and compliment them. They wont bore you, to the point where you want the main riff to come back; no they are top notch.

The bass is nice and high in the mix, which is also a treat. The bass just doesn't follow the guitar like in most thrash, on this album its very audible and memorable, and definitely compliments the songs. Again; it's just not thrown in there for the sake of it, instead it's competently written and therefore works extremely well for the songs overall.

The vocals are simply awesome. I don't have a single bad thing to say about them. The vocalist can hit the high notes, and do the lower ones with ease. Although there isn't too much on the more aggressive side of vocals on this album, and that's a good thing. It just wouldn't fit. Whoever mixed this album, did a fantastic job, because the vocals fit nicely in the mix, and are always completely audible and clear. Nice.

My overall impression with this album, is that it is extremely competently written, and the songs are extremely diverse. The album has the power to draw you in to the point that you won't turn it off or skip songs; you'll sit on your ass and listen to the thing straight through. Every time. As I mentioned earlier, the riffing is really the highlight of this album, its incredible, really was ahead of its time I think. Oh and there is a great cover on this album too, it's probably the best cover I've ever heard. It's good.

Overall, this album was very memorable, and wont be one that your mp3 player WON'T see.

I give this 9/10.

-Fritz

check out my podcasts and other reviews at: www.axisofmetal.blogspot.com and www.osiriswebzine.blogspot.com

There are very few albums I have ever heard, metal or otherwise, that I could say were perfect, flawless albums. This is simply because, in my mind, in order for something to be perfect, it not only has to have stellar musicianship, great songs, and interesting concepts, but it has to have something that makes it stand out from other similiar bands in whatever that genre would happen to be. Toxik's think this not only fits this criteria, it goes way beyond it.

The first thing I want to say about this album is this: if you have heard their first album World Circus, you know that it's a pretty damn good metal album. However, Think This is so much better than even that that it isn't even comparable!

The concept of this album kicks ass. It's all about government corruption, the population being brainwashed by the media, and corporate lies being disguised as morality. Some of the ideas in these lyrics were pretty ahead of their time, but when you listen to the album now, it's pretty alarming how much it describes the mess of a society America has become in the modern day. Everything is well thought out, intelligent and intellectual, and thought provoking.

The music itself also kicks ass. It's really hard to describe because there isn't any other album that sounds like this, but I guess the best description would be saying this album sounds like Anthrax and Rush had a very beautiful baby, and that baby is this album. The drumming is like a cross between Neal Peart and Dave Lombardo, the riffs are awesome, Josh Christian's neo-classical styled guitar soloing is absolutely brilliant, and the vocals are awesome. The movements (yeah, movements, that's how complex this is) in the songs are interesting and well done, which definitely, like the guitar soloing, shows neo-classical influence, as well as prog influence, and the instrumental breakdowns in some of the songs are INSANE. The only breaks in this are "There Stood the Fence", which I guess is this band's idea of a power ballad (without the cheese factor) and a cover of "Out on the Tiles" by Led Zeppelin which is pretty much faithful to the original song.

This is an album that you have to listen to a few times before you can truly grasp exactly how good it is. The first time I listened to it, I was absolutely blown away by it. Subsequent listens have made me enjoy the album even more. This is highly recommended for fans of thrash metal, progressive rock, or even just people who like music that is a bit different from the norm.

Toxik were one of those lucky bands who never created a shit album before going their separate ways (although, that could be set to change as I hear they've reformed… hopefully not though for their sakes eh!?). Although featuring different line ups in their 2 album late 80's career, they always managed to keep the consistency up to near 100% throughout with fast paced, forward thinking technically challenging speed/thrash for the most part, with the obligatory Queensryche-like ballad thrown in for good measure. However, out their two albums, this one just has the edge for me, as it features a different vocalist (Charles Sabin) to their first effort (their debut 'World Circus' featuring the notorious 'acquired taste' shrieker Mike Sanders, who was known to out-shriek even Halford – for more info on that, check out the inner sleeve of the recent re-issue of 'World Circus' – it's something he was obviously proud of!).

'Think This' is a concept album, the concept being made blatantly clear by the excellent Ed Repka cover art alone – TV brainwashing millions of us poor unsuspecting innocents into a collective sheep-like state (cleverly interspersing slices of TV advertisements amongst the songs for added effect, done to death by many a band since). However, the album focus probably made a nice change at the time of release to the usual template lyrical subjects of injustice, nuclear war, fantasy or to a lesser extent - Satan – most of which were very popular staples among the genre for a of a lot of bands at the time. Musically, as mentioned previously, this is pretty much a musician's dream/wankfest (delete to taste) of the highest order, as the riffs shred at top paces, the solos fly more notes per second at your head than your average Yngwie fret-frig, the drums batter out avant-garde jazzy rhythms and more fills than you could possibly imagine. Vocally, Sabin whilst not being as overtly high pitched as his aforementioned predecessor, still manages to traumatize his tonsils by some fantastic falsetto squeals amongst a generally excellent voice that I'd say had the range and power of a metal Jeff Buckley.

Also, there are some comparisons in guitar tones (especially the synth guitar parts) to an embryonic Cynic with that clear, fresh quality sound helping to expand the progressive musical elements of the album, with heartfelt, slow wailing guitar solos over acoustic sections in the ballad like arrangements of some parts of a few of the songs. The only negative comment I can think of making about this release is the fact that there is a track that stands out from the rest of the album in a not so good way, that being the Led Zeppelin cover, which although done in Toxik's own inimitable style, seems a bit strange being thrown into the track listing of a concept album, however it's quickly followed up by possibly the best track on the album 'Shotgun Logic', which brings together prime Sadus with Voivod-like chords to truly batter you into submission, making up for the out of place cover in droves.

Anyhow, enough rambling from me – if you haven't heard this band before, don't just take my word for it, you'll be hard pressed to find a bad review for these guys anywhere. Go seek out both their albums (both re-issued on Metal Mind records alongside a load of other classic Roadrunner material). A fantastic album of the highest order.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

This album here is one of the few albums that is absolutely perfect and nothing can change that. It is perfect from start to finish with amazing technical skill on all on the instruments, especially the guitar. The guitarist, Josh Christian, is an underrated guitar god and quite possibly the best guitarist in all of thrash metal. This album is full of great solos and amazing riffs with a great jazzy vocalist. The old advertisements and other voices used on this album are pure genius and gives this album perfect flow.

The album starts off with the title track, "Think This", which features a very creative and melodic entrance that you hear again on the last track "Think That". The transition between tracks is excellent because when it goes to a new track it makes the sound of changing the channel on an old tv set. My favorite track on the album "War NJN8/ In God" because of its amazing entrance, though all the entrances on the album are incredible, but this track starts with an emotional solo and then transfers to some great riffage backed Sabin's amazing voice. The best guitar solo on the album would have to either be the solo in "Black and White" or the one in "Machine Dream" because both of those solos make my jaw drop every time I hear them. However, there is also the amazing acoustic moment of "Shotgun Logic" that is slow yet so emotional and perfect.

As I have said before, this album is perfect. You will hear a lot of neo-classical shred-style solos on this album along with great technical thrash riffing with powerful bass and drums to back it up, therefore making this album a must-have for any lover of thrash or guitar.

So, as it turns out, World Circus was naught but a primer for Toxik, and a crude one at that. So if that slab of frenetic riffing and acrobatic screeching is only the tip of the iceberg...then just how good could the follow-up be? Two years pass, and Toxik returns to answer that question, with a close to immaculate sophomore release that defies all expectations and stands far out ahead of the pack, almost reaching the lofty heights set by other bands Coroner and Deathrow in 1989 with albums like No More Color and Deception Ignored. Think This goes above and beyond its predecessor in that the memorable writing of the songs is ramped well up, the musicianship is on point if not exceeding that, and the entire album features a concise structural theme which explores the horrors of mass media and its effect on the average American. Not all the lyrics share the same subjects, mind you, but as a whole they function like a mirror into the issues of the late 80s, when our programming was becoming all too evident...

There are a few personnel changes here which may also have contributed to the album's superiority. Vocalist Mike Sanders is replaced here with Charles Sabin, who is another vocalist capable of the high pitched notes, but reigns them in considerably for a performance that falls somewhere between Ray Alder of Fates Warning and Erik A.K. of Flotsam & Jetsam (the latter more in attitude). John Donnelly joins Josh Christian on the guitar and additional synths, and the band begins to have a field day as they create a progressive speed/thrash classic which resounds even today. 20 years and not much of the paint has flaked from Think This. You don't hear many albums like this today, with great higher pitched singing that doesn't grate on your nerves or attempt to annoy you with retro poseur moronism.

"Think This" wastes no time in cutting the point, the youth are being contorted over decades of viewership into a set of beliefs, mind control through repetition alone. This task is accomplished with a rousing, twisting thrasher that could just as well have been written by Dream Theater, for all its wonderful solos and melodies and jamming potential (but never overboard). "Greed" shifts the channel to a wonderful Wall Street sample and a turbulent, escalating thrust of melodic thrash metal which develops momentum and mystique through its myriad riffs, acoustic overlays and constant activity. "Spontaneous" is one of the best Toxik tracks hands down, with a Bush (senior) sample that leads into a great mid-paced mosh rhythm, steadily building steam with a flurry of bouncing bass and churning riffs that develop a punctual verse. The chorus is stunning, as Sabin screams out the woes of economy like a jet hissing past inches from your face. "There Stood the Fence" is a hard rocking power ballad, but a beautiful one. If this track had the name Poison, Warrant or Slaughter attached to it, we'd still be hearing it on our classic rock stations today. But alas, it does have a bit of a technical swagger to its writing which still identifies it as Toxik. But have no fear, "Black and White" returns to the band's manic, skilled riffing and clinical dissections of the modern world, with an amazingly catchy melodic vocal bridge and freakish, discordant edge to the chorus, and excellent leads.

'Politicians, word magicians they've got us fighting ourselves
Simple logic with hands in our pockets
We're all for sale!'

Ditto "Technical Arrogance", with its coiling rhythms and arpeggios. Ditto "Burn Jim/In God" which opens with haunting organs and evangelical samples before rupturing into a thrashgasm. "Machine Dream" is beautiful, with lush melodies and synth tones that once more give in to the impulse to thrash out of control, and searing dual leads. After this, we are treated to a great cover of Zeppelin's "Out on the Tiles", which somehow fits into this album perfectly. "Shotgun Logic" is the anti-drug anthem, opening with an all too familiar commercial sample and proceeding to punch out some pretty seriously amazing riffs. "Time After Time" is the last track, with some more amazing guitar work, and a really cool interplay with backing vocals below Sabin's screaming. To say that this is actually the weakest track on Think This is really speaking volumes for just how tight this album was in its day.

In a world that was embracing Fates Warning and Dream Theater, I find it absolutely staggering that this record was not a major success...it's superior to either Perfect Symmetry or When Day & Dreams Unite, if only people had been listening for it. The album is still quite a refresher, with a level production that recalls King Diamond's Conspiracy of the same year. Sadly, it was the last we'd hear from Toxik for years. The lyrics are still pretty relevant, and though some of them have that kind of cheeky 80s socio political highbrow vibe to them, they're not bad. The band is back together these days, supposedly working on new material, and let us hope it's not too late for them to achieve the glory they deserve. Some people may rue Sabin's higher pitched, shrieking vocals, but if you're on board for some great screaming and wonderful, progressive speed and thrash, this automatically belongs to your collection.

Highlights: randomly skip to any point in the 53+ minutes of this recording, and you will likely land on a highlight.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

I mean it when I say that too. Recently I have found myself giving out mostly 'all or nothing' reviews, and so to continue that, I will say that this album has it all. I've never heard a better band nail the vocals, guitars, bass, drums, and songwriting so perfect as this. This HAS to be the best metal album out there.

Where to begin? I'll go with the vocals. To be honest, I didn't much like the prior effort, 'World Circus', all that much. I listen to it and stuff, and enjoy it a little, because it IS Toxik after all. But... Mike Sanders, while he could hit really high notes, started and stayed at a falsetto the entire course of World Circus, and it just got to be so grating. The guitars on World Circus are stellar, but it doesn't save it for me, not to mention the songs on it are missing what this one has. Perhaps Josh Christian heard these complaints, and that is why he decided to get a new singer, I don't know, but I can safely say, Charles Sabin's voice is fantastic. My favorite male vocalist, I believe. Charles Sabin can hit falsettos, but he can also just SING. In fact, the falsettos on this release were only used to accent moments of power, where surges of energy would gather from the instruments, and BAM the falsetto! Producing a feeling of such power that if you were driving while listening to this, at around 60, you'd be going 90 (assuming your vehicle has such capabilities). Charles Sabin makes this album such a great staple of 80's metal, so full of energy and capability, though you wouldn't guess it by looking at his picture on the insert (he looks insanely bored out of his skull). Especially on Spontaneous, that chorus is fucking anthemic, and his voice pulls you in. Machine Dream is another, with his voice given this studio effect making it sound like it's from a dream or something, which of course quickly is brought to an end when the band thrashes out later in the song.

The guitars have also been stepped up, with the addition of John Donnelly, to do the rhythms, so as Josh Christian could focus more on his leads. The leads on this album ARE better than that those on World Circus. More classically inspired and lightning fast, as well as some twin guitar. My favorite lead on the whole thing would have to be the one found on Black And White. It perfectly sums up what I'm talking about here. Josh Christian's flashy, technical playing just makes my jaw drop, because unlike other 'look at me' players, like Malmsteen, every Christian lead sounds signature, and different.

Something can definitely be said for the songwriting here too. There's more use of keyboards, though they're never overt, not to mention there's not a single 'Pain and Misery' number to be found on this record. The songs are more technical, and more memorable at the same time, though the lyrics are pretty much in the same vein, of society, religion, politics, etc. Machine Dream with it's keyboards and effects, Technical Arrogance with its bouncy jazziness. It's all here.

The bass is similar to Maiden, not that Brian Bonini's playing resembles Steve Harris at all, but in that you can definitely hear the bass in the tracks being played, and it's a part of the overall sound. Not too loud or overbearing, but definitely "You're not going to forget I'm here". Though there is no one song to point out to say "Man the bass on this song is rocking!", but it is a consistent, steady performance, all the way out. Accenting the technicality of the guitars, sometimes doodling doing neat stuff. More than competent performance from Bonini throughout.

Tad Leger on drums pulls off complexly odd-timed drum patterns around the sheer technicality of the music with ease (see the beginning of Technical Arrogance at around 0:38), and manages a solid performance throughout.

Every musician is gifted, and the production is even perfect, not making any instrument too loud or out of place. This is what metal should be, sheer talent, brutality, technicality, catchiness, and beauty all rolled into one. Every song on here is good, there is no filler. My favorite is probably 'Machine Dream'. Not enough could really be said about everything that's good about this release, as everything about it is good, and i wouldn't add or detract a thing from this masterpiece. My favorite metal release of all time.