Renaissance by Death

Betrayal could be seen as something of a contradiction for being a group of Christians who propagate a message of anger and suffering through the vindictive medium of thrash metal. But this would only be the case if one assumes that the only aspect of the faith has to do with the money-grabbing used car salesmen turned televangelists who populate the pulpit of late (as Cary Elwes’ character in The Princess Bride stated so eloquently, “Life is pain, anyone who says otherwise is selling something.”). Much of the scriptures talk at length about conflicts and the suffering of both good and evil persons alike, so it’s ripe territory for anyone looking to put a biting riff assault beneath it.

The presentation found on the band’s debut album is fairly humble yet varied, playing up a technical component not all that far removed from the early works of Testament and Death Angel, while having a production that is razor thin and low-fi. This combination serves to bolster the picture of the fear of a looming divine retribution, one that is tempered with a somewhat more melodic and slightly neo-classical bent to the guitar work, almost as if taking a few notes from the power/thrash formula that Iced Earth was starting to bring into the scene at this juncture. It’s at its most noticeable on the interchange between a haunting balladic series of clean guitar sections with ghostly lead melodies and rapid paced gallop riffing that is “Stroll Thru A Wicked Age”, which almost sounds like it could have been on Iced Earth’s debut album.

Just about everything on here is extremely well put together, from the treble-steeped distorted guitars to the tight and occasionally adventurous rhythm section. Galloping crushers with occasional nods to the rapid picked mayhem of Slayer in “Assassins In The Midst” and “Prophets Of Baal” show a band that is more than willing to play up the aggression factor, perhaps a bit more so than most of the mainline thrash bands circa 1991 who were starting to go for a watered down sound to compete with the emergent grunge scene. The only real weak link to be found is in vocalist Chris Ackermann, who basically succeeds at being a 2nd rate Tom Araya when he’s on his game, and collapses into a 4th rate Chuck Billy clone when he attempts to add more gruff to his voice. His clean singing voice is passable, but not nearly as distinctive or powerful as James Hetfield, who is clearly the target of emulation on this front. His work is adequate, but doesn’t really standout as being terribly passionate or enraged, almost like a boxer who pulls too many punches.

For 1991, this is an above average thrash album from a somewhat unlikely source. There is a noteworthy minority of Christian oriented bands in the thrash metal genre, but most of them tended to slightly expand on existing formats rather than really go for something distinctive. “Renaissance By Death” is among the more inventive in this department, and is definitely a good find for anyone who liked the older approach to this sub-genre, in its original, low-fidelity greatness. Given the right approach, even the much derided Christian religion can turn out some decent metal music, and the prudent consumer does well to put music above message if the latter doesn’t agree with his own sensibilities, at least in this case.

The guitar players in this band had some degree of talent, but unfortunately bad production, amateurish singing, and poor songwriting ultimately sinks the music. The most obvious problem here is the vocals, which are annoying throughout the entire album (especially when he tries to do a gruff talk). The vocal melodies are often off-kilter, making it sound like the vocals were meant to be on a different song.

The lyrics are of a christian persuasion, and some of them are pretty heavy handed. For example, the song Fallen Deceived talks about going to hell for turning "away from God's love". Though when you think about it, that's just the Gospel message: you must either love God or suffer. So what can they do? Sure it's an intellectually bankrupt and contradictory thing to say that someone *must* use their free will to love God, but that's what the Bible says, so that's what Betrayal sings.

As far as the guitar work goes, the riffs and lead guitar work isn't bad in itself, but the tone (especially of the lead) sucks, and at times attains to a nails-on-chalkboard level of annoying. So while there's some good thrash on here (e.g. Assassin In the Midst), the production and vocals are so bad that the guitars often feels like they're buried in quicksand. Not that the song writing would have been spectacular anyway; in fact, some songs sound like stuff was just randomly thrown together. This album is definitely not as as coherent as their follow-up.