Corrupt Minds

When a scene becomes heavily saturated, it's fairly common to uncover some curiosities hiding among the sea of bands that were labeled tag-along acts, often because of what year their material hit the shelves rather than its actual merits. Wisconsin-based thrashers Acrophet are arguably the most unfair victims of the dreaded "also ran" label, as they staked out a fairly unique niche within the thrash metal paradigm that may well have proven formidable had it been unleashed a few years earlier and in one of the major spheres of influence at said time (namely San Francisco or New York). Given the bands own testimony as being exclusively influenced by hardcore and traditional metal and creating a thrashing synthesis of the two independent of the major scenes, which is credible given that the band's history goes back as far as '83 and they were located about as far from California and New York as one could be in the continental U.S., they could be viewed as pioneers of sorts, despite their debut LP Corrupt Minds coming out as late as 1988, when thrash metal and its more punk-driven crossover counterpart were basically in full swing.

The curiously original character of this album is perhaps rivaled only by how impressive it comes across given that most of the musicians involved were barely old enough to drive a car at the time. It has a degree of raw intensity and an overwhelmingly primitive character to it that would ordinarily draw comparisons to Discharge's 1982 debut and perhaps Suicidal Tendencies' first album, yet it also possesses a virtuoso lead guitar display and occasional riff happy thrashing moments that point to the sort of relentless assault normally reserved to what Testament and Death Angel were doing at the time, hence the tendency of modern listeners to peg this as being inspired by the Bay Area sound. The angry yet cathartic result of these two seemingly warring elements comes close to presenting a road-not-taken scenario where instead of simply injecting a punk-like energy level into an otherwise purely NWOBHM-inspired template, Metallica instead crafted an alternate Kill 'Em All that leans a bit more heavily on the hardcore elements and wound up closer to where Nuclear Assault landed on Game Over 3 years later. This latter comparison proves to be an effective one given that bassist/vocalist Dave Baumann's angst-driven shouts definitely have a John Connelly vibe to them.

The hardcore sentiment betrayed by this album results in something that's a bit more stripped down than a typical thrash offering of either the Bay Area or New York persuasion, and generally manifests in songs that keep things concise and mostly shy away from going too far past the 3 minute mark. The feel of things is generally driving yet very much streamlined, with ferocious speeders like "Corrupt Minds", "Lifeless Image" and "Warped Illusions" exuding that sort of keep it short and keep it chaotic brand of mayhem that gets every shaved-headed hooligan annihilating each other in a circle pit, yet also makes room for an occasionally impressive fit of fancy riff work. On the other hand, the slightly longer material on here such as "From The Depths" and "Forgotten Faith" showcases a band that has a solid command of the same basic format that turned late 80s Bay Area classics like The Ultra-Violence and Eternal Nightmare into obligatory classics, complete with roaring guitar solos and crushing riff work that rivals the established order of the thrash scene. But when all is said and done, the song where this band really hits their stride is the lone longer offering "Crowd Distress", which displays plenty of punk elements while allowing this crop of youngsters to truly showcase their chops in developing a punishing thrash anthem through a series of twists and turns.

Apart from the sound of this album being a bit raw and low-fi, to the point of it being slightly robbed of its full neck-ruining potential, there is very little to complain about here. Whether one runs in pure grade thrash or crossover circles, this delivers a masterful jolt of youthful intensity and poise that would sit well with those who either crave the speed-infused brilliance of Testament's The Legacy or the core-infused mastery of D.R.I.'s Dealing With It!. Despite the generally simplistic character of the songwriting, there are no slouches to be found in this quartet in the performance department, and while Todd Saikie and Dave Pelino do a more than adequate job of lighting up their respective 6-strings, special mention should be made of the active, bordering on noodling bass work of Dave Baumann. It doesn't quite go as nuts as what Les Claypool took to Blind Illusion, nor is it the distorted shredding that typified Cliff Burton's pioneering work with Metallica, but it goes well beyond the Ian Hill-like support role often brought to the table by bassist/vocalists in the style such as Tom Araya and Schmier, occasionally showcasing elements of Dan Lilker. It's a complete, forgotten and largely unsung classic that any self-respecting thrash fanatic should hear, and one that stands apart from the pack largely by discovering the style independent of what it had already produced at the time.

Acrophet hail from Brookfield, Wisconsin, the band was literally 4 kids, with an average age of 17 among all of them. They played a hardcore-influenced form of thrash. The band was signed to Triple X Records and recorded their debut record "Corrupt Minds" at Opus Recordings in Gurnee, Illinois. Managed by Death's own manager Eric Greif, these 4 youthful thrashers had a lot going for them. Let's take a look at the music content...

The record opens with "Intro To Corruption", which has some cool melodic guitar playing. Then the title track comes in out of nowhere with some frantic riffs and hardcore influenced vocals. Guitarists Rob Anthony and Todd Saikie are truly incredible, their riffs are varied, and they play FAST! The solos sound great, there is lots of speed and intensity to be found throughout the record. Bassist and vocalist Dave Baumann is the definitely the member who brings in the hardcore influences. His vocal delivery is very intense, and he spits the lyrics out quite quickly during some parts. His bass is also highly audible, thanks to the superb production. Finally we have drummer Jason Mooney. Jason's drumming is quite fast throughout much of the record. He is an awesome drummer, especially considering the fact that he was 17 during the recording. Now let's take a look at some of the tracks...

"Crowd Distress" has some great riffs, and an awesome melody. The bass is quite audible on this song especially, and the drumming is quick and tight. This is one of the best tracks of the album, it is excellent! "Holy Spirit" begins with a organ like intro before a fast bass line comes in. The riff sounds killer, and the drums are super fast. The fills are quickly performed and the vocal performance here is one of the best on the album. This is another killer track! "Forgotten Faith" features more awesome riffs, and the lyrics are pretty thought-provoking. Take a look...

"False confessions your disgrace pleading your will to die
An acting day some other way forgiving them from lies
On your knees you pray to thee blinding you with my sight"

"Victims Of The Holocaust" is the last track here, and it's quite short (only 44 seconds). It's fast and sounds very influenced by hardcore, much like how the vocals are influenced by hardcore. The lyrics talk about nuclear war, which was probably the most common lyrical theme of thrash during much of the 80's and early 90's. Acrophet does it well however, this is a decent closing track to one of the most underrated classics of 1988.

This record will not disappoint you. The riffs and solos are plentiful, the bass is highly audible in the mix, the drumming is fast and furious, and the vocals fit the music perfectly. This record might require a few listens to fully grasp the music and appreciate it, I admit that I didn't really like this that much upon first listen... However, upon 3rd listen, I started to love this. The riffs and music itself just need time to fully sink in your head. Once you've listened to this about 3 or 4 times, the music will sound more familiar and enjoyable. I highly recommend this to fans of Nuclear Assault, Sacred Reich, Evildead, Gothic Slam, and D.R.I.

Highlights: "Intro To Corruption", "Corrupt Minds", "Slaves Of Sin", "Crowd Distress", "Holy Spirit", and "Warped Illusions"

Acrophet might not be the greatest thrash metal band ever, but surely worth more than what they collected during these long, hard years. I discovered them on the mighty Stars On Thrash compilation and, together with Atrophy and Gothic Slam, they represent the elite of the most overlooked bands in history of the 80s thrash metal. A thrash metal that was still influenced by embryonic forms of hardcore and speed metal to form the classic “in your face” songs that achieve the goal of bringing high in the sky the flag of one of the most sincere music ever in those years.

Ok, this speech is a bit excessive if compared to the real, effective music here, that is nothing but good, but the conviction, the passion of these bands is something that nowadays is hard to find and we must give them a special credit for it. These guys really take no prisoners along the 30 minutes of this album and they show an enviable burden of technique too to complete the panorama. Ok, they are mostly about impact and speed but they are good at it and they are never chaotic in their unbelievable violence.

The introduction already shows good guitars duets that are full of more technical parts while the real opener is the title track that I already knew from the compilation. The tempo is incredibly fast and the perfect mixture of thrash and hardcore is done greatly. The fast riffs are alternated to sudden, more mature parts under the sign of more mature thrash. The same one at the beginning to “Slaves of Sin” but when the palm muting enters the sound, the mess is created and in a good way. The drums are essential but it’s good like this. Old fashion! The main role is by the guitars and the vocals. The first ones are incredibly relentless in their obsessive march through duets, stop and go and fast riffs.

The vocals are quite unpolished and perfect because they conserve the rawness of the thrash metal with just a hint of hardcore but they are not childish at all. Some influences are inevitably taken by Anthrax and this band sometimes in even faster and more compact. Surely, during the long up tempo parts they reach great levels of violence. The songs structures are quite dynamic and catchy, showing great tempo changes and the always very good guitars work. Even if the production is not that great, the violence is always high and concentrated in short songs to increase the sensations of the pure impact. There are no fillers and this is a thing I love. They never add something that is unnecessary and all is reduced to the bone. That is great for this genre.

What I would have preferred is a higher bass sound. So often the band stops to underline the bass parts but they are not powerful enough and it’s a pity. Check “Crowd Distress” and its almost oriental breaks by the lead guitars. The rest, as you deduce, is on up tempo with sudden stop with mid-paced riffs. The continue flow of guitars solo on “Crime for Living” is astonishing while the refrain is always easily recognizable. “Holy Spirit” begins with keyboards to turn soon into a quite fast track where they expose their religious ideas, bound to the hypocrisy, to the politics and money.

The last songs salute us with neverending up tempo parts and especially the last “Victims of the Holocaust” is astonishing for the vocals duets. Overall, I must say that at the end you are almost stunned by such an overdose of brutality and that’s exactly what Acrophet are about. No bullshits, just violence. You may say that it’s always the same damned kind of music from the beginning to the end, with few variations. Well, who cares? Listen to gothic instead. Acrophet welcome everybody into thrash and we are talking about the good one…

"...you'd better start running and hope that Jesus really saves..."

Now that I've stated that Acrophet is never mentioned in thrash (or in any other circle) in my review of Agony's The First Defiance, it's about time this four-piece were dragged from the pile.

Wisconsin's Acrophet aren't at the bottom center of the pile known is metal's mass car crash. While countless bands lie upside down in all kinds of drooling puddles in this vehicular wasteland, that area is reserved for sputterers like Anialator and Executioner; almost entirely unremarkable bands that are as audibly horrid as they are rightfully blanked. Nah, Acrophet careened into the outskirts of the pile, got a wheel snagged on Angeles del Infierno's rear axle and is rocking back and forth trying to get loose. I believe I'm in the minority on this, for in the ears of many reviewers Acrophet aren't the pick of the litter and with that I have to agree, but instead of having more of the usual denigration heaved upon them, it should be known that the band can musically pass go easily enough to collect some sort of reward. They're simply better than some make them out to be.

In a nutshell, the four-piece crosswire the aggravated, eye-peeling speed chaos of hardcore, thrash's baneful hedge of thorns appeal, and the technical skill of the Bay Area scene, only regressed to a more primitive time. Full of fight and hostile energy, these thirteen tracks probably should've spacewarped right over the pile and into the debris-free lanes of recognition, at least for awhile. I limit this awareness by time 'cos by like 1990-'91 the music begins to collect some dust on its tires, then when '06 meanders through is perhaps a victim of dry rot.

But despite the eventual layer of dead skin particles, the quartet still manage a mighty product that overpowers the likes of Realm, debut Devastation, and Recipients of Death, but I don't think that's really saying much. To drop a few more names, the youngsters (word has it their average age was about 17 at the time this rolled off the reel) manage to evince feral direction from the likes of early (not really crossover, though it's in there too) DRI, Sacred Reich, thrash-era Suicidal Tendencies, and some decent riffage that would be stale by the time Viking, Defiance, or Atrophy get a hammerlock on it in a few months. In other words, they play the same riffs as those bands, but Acrophet doesn't forget to strap on the supercharger, so instead of melodic toe-tappers we get hefty fire-breathers with the potential to be mellifluous, and the thing is they're capable of doing both.

"Intro to Corruption"'s coarse trial guitar twizzle can give way to suspicion that they're gonna try to impress with fretboard dazzle with spirit simply beyond their level, but when the title cut stampedes into earshot, nine-tenths of such suspicion implodes. Man, I'll tell ya, this track is the E.F. Hutton of the album. Like a trailer-spitting tornado it starts - I'm kinda hard pressed to locate a song that uncoils pure intensity like this, and tracks living on Mind Wars, Pleasure to Kill, and Skeptics Apocalypse spin to mind alarmingly fast. The rest of the album follows with much of the same teeth-grinding passion, its exertion abound, and as each tune screeches by, one should notice brief technical passages spritzed throughout the disc that makes the intro seem more like cruel deceit. For instance, side two's "Holy Spirit" and "Living in Today" hail velocity, yet show it's not all about speed lunacy by often toning down their rhythmic muscle with deliberate and interesting enough cords, the first backed by a fairly accomplished solo other speedcore guitarists probably wouldn't mind owning.

Dave Baumann's vocals are of the hollering hardcore lot, actually adequate for the course yet start to age by the album's end, but the already acknowledged intensity and not-so-underused rhythm shifts manage to keep things out of the ditch for awhile. Blocks of potent backing vocals enliven some areas of bruisers "From the Depths" and "Forgotten Faith", with the latter proving quite unstoppable in its monstrous frash and rather crisp despite its rage. Unfortunately the disc ends with throwaway "Victims of the Holocaust" - awkward in stride, quick nearing the cusp of pointless, and vocally backed to the hilt.

The end brings us to time again. After a few spins, even an unseasoned listener may detect the sliding metallic *shiiik shiiik* of the era's reaper sharpening its blade amid the wholehearted wailing of the band's debut. It's a shame to me 'cos as one of the lp's fans, I'd like more people to appreciate the tidal force mixture of energy and unexpected acumen, but that's just me.

"...the end of one's desire, the end of all mankind..."