This feels slightly odd as a No Remorse release and I suspect was mainly put out due to the Manilla Road connections: Mark Shelton produced the '87 tracks, they played together, both from Kansas--but you can't really draw any strong musical connections to MR as with Stygian Shore. As a purely personal point of interest, I didn't know this had two pre-Psychic Pawn members, although then again, I've owned Decadent Delirium for years and had no clue Micha Kite had any sort of musical career outside of writing for Pit magazine in the mid-'90s until fairly recently (mercifully, Kurt Hubert doesn't seem to have had any musical projects).
The new 2013 material is too modern for my tastes and best avoided if you're here for the old material--it's modern thrash with some okay-ish riffs, some groove metal sections, and some odd riff and lyrical choices that would probably work far better in the context of a death metal band. Unfortunately, the angry talk-singing vocals only further modernize the band's sound. "The Tempest" even has some laughable spoken narration babbling about Luciferian precepts or some nonsense. I'm here for violence, bitches, and brain damage, not awkward attempts to be deep or justify hedonism.
Hearing the newer stuff made me slightly apprehensive about the '87 material, but as usual, '80S METAL HARDLY EVER DISAPPOINTS. It's competent thrash leaning towards the more aggressive side of the west coast sound--think a mix of the Death Angel and Dark Angel debuts (ignoring the speed metal elements of the latter), maybe with some early Sacred Reich in there too. The vocals remind me of a less exaggeratedly snarly Mustaine crossed with Don Doty, although on "Brain Damage" I was pleasantly reminded of Piledriver's vocals. These tracks represent a band of the time playing their style well rather than some sort of incredible unearthed recording. But keeping that in mind, I have nothing bad to say about the tracks beyond them being somewhat generic.
The DVD is better than I expected--although presented as a "documentary," it's just then-recent band member interviews and recollections cut with vintage video footage. My only gripe is that there's obviously a decent amount of old video, but here it's only presented in relatively short, overdubbed bits. Perhaps it's just me, but I'd much rather see spotty video of an '80s thrash gig than find out who in the band really likes Tabasco sauce. Bonus points for the unexpected appearance of a Bathory t-shirt, though!
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