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Reign > Exit Clause > 1996, CD, Mausoleum Records > Reviews
Reign - Exit Clause

Thrash/Death? Eh, not really... - 45%

stonedjesus, June 24th, 2006

Classifying Reign as Thrash/Death is a bit misleading. I approached this album with expectations relevant to either genre. It seems I overlooked thier backwards hats, goatees, and the fact that they formed in the early 90's...

Right... well getting to the point here: This is the kind of thing you'd expect to find on Roadrunner records about this time in history (1994-97). Machine Head, Fear Factory and Sepultura had all released well-recieved "groove" or half-thrash albums and it turns out Reign's "Exit Clause" is very much in that vein. Pathetically enough, this is hardly a contemporary (if only a sorry imitation) of even those bands.

Stop-start down-tuned riffs make up the bulk of the guitars here, lots of chugga chugga. Lead guitars? Eh, not really... Some fills are there, but nothing much. The vocalist is pretty standard as far as a core/groove goes, monotone yell with occasional whisper/spoken parts ah via Phil Anselmo/Rob Flynn. Drums/Bass simply follow the guitars, nothing worth mention.

The songs are slow and plodding, an almost half-speed version of Pro-pain or Earth Crisis circa '95. Of course, this is just not my thing in particular, the songs go nowhere and generally fade out before making any sort of redeeming statement.

Fans of modern day tough-guy hardcore, Pantera, and late 90's Roadrunner Records type metal will likely enjoy this album on some level. Fans of thrash metal, old-school death metal and combinations of those two genres will probably have a hard time getting into this, as I did.

45/100: Hardcorish half-thrash that is, while competant, uninteresting.