Accu§er - The Mastery (2018)

Accu§er's second full-length for Metal Blade records dials back a little of that groove/thrash influence which had survived by a thread since their 90s era, and instead seems like a block of structured, pure Bay Area thrash tempered with a few fragments of the staple Germanic go-to's. In particular it's the vocals which continue to remind me of a less grating, charming Tom Angelripper which cause me to make that comparison, but I think some of the more clinical mute picked harmonies here also possess some faint similarities to late 80s Destruction, Vendetta and Deathrow, and they use these as points of interest in a number of the tracks here which might seem blander without them, although the overall impression of The Mastery is that it's not truth in advertising.

It's a solid effort, unquestionable, and belongs in a career cluster with the three preceding it, but while this isn't technically a samey, unanimous record in terms of riff construction, a lot of the tunes seemed to bleed together for me, and it grow a little dull despite the energy on exhibit. The vocals rarely spit out anything of interest, lack a real sense of grit and anger even compared to The Forlorn Divide, and sometimes they even seem an afterthought to the riffing rather than a complement to it. The mix of the instruments is admittedly more level than on the last album, but I feel that it lacks the dynamic range, especially the bass and the depth of the palm muted parts. The bridges and leads here are still quite competent, but they seem a little less emotionally resonant, or drier than those from 2016. A couple epic moments, in tunes like "My Skin" and "Time for Silence", keep this one far above the slag heap that represented their career from Double Talk to Agitation, but it's not as formidable as Diabolic or The Forlorn Divide and grinds the band's upward momentum to a halt, without spilling them off the side of the highway overpass. Not the best of their resurgence era, but competent, and void of any truly jarring flaws. Folks into later Testament, Defiance, Warbringer, or Exodus could find enough meat to gnaw on here.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://accuser.de/

Accu§er - The Forlorn Divide (2016)

Accu§er was never a band I cared to follow too closely until I had gone into my extensive German thrash review cycle some years ago, largely because in the 80s they were vaguely decent at best, never really appealing to me as much as their peers. Like a lot of other thrash acts, they struggled a little to redefine themselves in the muddled 90s, when grunge and groove were taking over and the more traditional strains of metal were temporarily sunk alongside emergent black and death underground. It wasn't until 2013's Diabolic that I came away really impressed; they had managed to draft forward all of their strengths from the first decade into the modern production standards, ramp up the technicality a fraction and come away with a damn solid 21st century thrash album that shunned neither its roots nor its contemporaries. I can't be the only one who noticed, since they inked a deal with Metal Blade soon after.

I'm happy to report that The Forlorn Divide continues this path, with what is arguably the band's most thorough and involved record to date, a bruising nowadays thrash album which manages to even up its groove game...you'll hear some comparisons to the 'busier' bands of this ilk, maybe a Devildriver, but they are fully fused into Accu§er's longstanding thrash backbone and don't seem to be grabbing for any low-hanging fruit. I mean if you're truly averse to chugging and moderate speed breakdowns, this album is not likely to draw you in, but I think they handle it without lowering themselves to any pedestrian meathead standards, and so much of the album is fixed in that Bay Area thrash circa a Testament or Defiance, which was almost always the case here; Accu§er never had that much in common with the Teutonic 'Big Three' in terms of how they structured their music, beyond just the thrash tag itself. A more bricklaying, blue collar, brute style was applied and then splashed with the frenzied leads and other flair that represented the traditional, non-punk dimension of thrash...

I mention that, because this is an area in which I feel The Forlorn Divide excels. The leads and bridge rhythms in tracks like "Lust for Vengeance" are catchy, interesting, and satisfying, the product of great care when composing. This does create a little imbalance with the verse riffing, which is a little more of that simplicity, heard-before, groove thrash style, although to their credit it's more complex than what you'd expect of a band that makes it their entire medium. They do have some faster pieces, like "Unreal Perception", which actually does sound like a fusion of late 80s Sepultura or Slayer with their countrymen Sodom, especially in the vocal department. Frank Thoms uses a blunt and bloody vocal tone, which admittedly isn't my favorite among the German veterans, but he's also multi tasking with the rhythm guitars, so I can be a little more forgiving, especially because he sounds sincere, angry and effective. The bass sounds fat, pummeling and excellent on this disc, not only where it's allowed to breathe on its own (intro to "Tribulation") but even along the rhythms.

Plenty of variation between faster and mid-paced tracks. A little bit of filler, like the dull but brief intro of clean guitars, and maybe about 25% of the riffs don't really land anywhere interesting, but I don't have any doubts that Accu§er put a lot of effort into coming up with something that sounded true to itself, but was able to lock horns with whatever ephemeral concept of 'contemporary' thrash is present in the 'teens. Note for note, track for track I did not enjoy this as much as its predecessor Diabolic, but I think Frank Thoms and company are putting out the strongest material of their careers, and I'm happy to acknowledge it after so many middling or negative reactions I had to so many items in their discography.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (determined to persist)

https://accuser.de/

Accu§er - Diabolic (2013)

Long banished to the lower tiers of Teutonic thrash, Accu§er have had a career of peaks and valleys, though the peaks were never high enough above sea level for most to notice. They hit a sophomore summit on their 1989 effort Who Dominates Who?, a decent approximation of speed and thrash inspired by Metallica and other West Coast US acts rather than their local, better known German peers. But it wouldn't be long until they felt the sting of the 90s, experimenting with some pretty rank groove and thrash hybrids, quite a lengthy sting of poor to mediocre efforts that further hampered their progress and potential (to the point that they even changed their name). At some point last decade, though, the fires of 80s thrashing inspiration were once again lit beneath their bottoms, and they began releasing a series of new albums that, gradually, better integrated their earlier style into a modern milieu...a streak that continues with Diabolic, which not only gives a sound whooping to its predecessors Dependent Domination and Agitation, but trumps everything else thus far in their career.

You read that correctly: Diabolic is the first Accu§er of notable quality, so solidly crafted and meticulous in its production and presentation that it's damn near 'great'. Not that it's remotely original, or album of the year material, but this is the first time in memory I can actually recount listening through one of their records and then immediately wanting to play back through it. The balance of aggression, melody and finesse is no longer plagued by the lazy, 90s groove elements. At most there are 2-3 such riffs executed tastefully over an hour of content, but the vast majority of the songwriting is smugly nestled in the band's roots, only jazzed up with some superb production values that give it a modernized context so that you never feel as if you're listening to some 'old' record or a mindless retread. The palm muted charge patterns are heavily reminiscent of Master of Puppets-era Metallica (so I admit to some favorable bias there), with an occasional mix-tempo rouser redolent of Exodus or Testament (like the verse riffing in "Dethroned"). Even better, though, are the varied and amazing harmonies and melodies that spring up all over the foundation, like joyous flowers blooming through the pavement cracks. Whether it's the chorus spikes ("Diabolic" itself, perhaps the greatest song this band has ever recorded), gladiator harmonies ("Deification"), blazing and compelling double tremolo picked progressions and wigged out staccato screams (both also in "Deification"); or anything else they hurl out there, it almost always sticks...

Definitely summoned up some comparisons to the past three, great Paradox records with a few hints of Deathrow and Vendetta in their prime, thanks to the surgical skills on parade. Yet Accu§er manages to distinguish itself through the harsher vocals, which are aggressive barks similar to Max Cavalera if he'd been raised in Germany and not Brazil. Incredibly consistent, and often Frank's accent gives a little charm as when he enunciates the three 'w' sounds in the chorus of closer "World Wide Violence". The drum mix on this thing is fucking unbelievable, and when cranked to high volumes you can just hear the wind spinning off the snares, kicks and cymbals. Like the whole thing is hammering at you from a speedway or air strip. The bass lines are corpulent and constantly throbbing under the rhythm guitar, but I wouldn't say the lines were ever that interesting, just playing along and giving a bit more depth to the kick drums and chugging patterns. They also pull off a pretty nice acoustic guitar intro to "Apocalyptic Decay" that offers some foreshadowing to the level of musicality found thereafter. Honestly, I've heard a lot of younger bands like Warbringer and Evile try to pull off this post-Metallica or 'Bay Area' sound, and while they might be angrier or more energetic, the songwriting skill just never quite hits this level.

I struggle even to put together any viable complaints about Diabolic. A lot of the tracks are around 6-7 minute in length, and while they never exactly bore me, I suppose they could be tightened and trimmed down to chop off maybe 10-15 of the lesser inspired moments. Some of the lyrics are also pretty cliche from line to line, and music as good as this deserves some more imagination. But otherwise, this is a long overdue triumph for a band that I'd long written off since hearing them as a teen. Dependent Domination definitely had its moments, but this disc smooths out all the rough edges and had me headbanging for most of the play length. It's not the sort of thrash that would likely impress fans of highly technical fare like Vektor, or those who want dirtier, 80s speed metal production and raunchy Venom-like vocals, but has a lot to offer an audience still fond on Master of Puppets, Practice What You Preach, Fabulous Disaster, etc. Hell, this is even comparable in quality to the latest Destruction, Kreator, and Tankard efforts, all of which I more or less enjoyed. Persistence, once again, pays off. Well fucking done, and better late than never.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://accuser.de/

Accu§er - Dependent Domination (2011)

While last year's Agitation was by no means a good album, it at least started out strong, and offered a reprieve from the trendy and tedious groove thrash that Accu§er tried to pass off in the 90s with flops like Reflections and Taken by the Throat. Proving that they're not just a 'one-comeback pony', the band returns once more with what must be their strongest in 22 years, and it's all due to their decision to stick with the straight riff heavy thrash that they were writing back in the late 80s. Now, Dependent Domination is not exactly the messianic upstart that I've always felt the band would be capable of producing, and the modern flourishes of overwrought palm muted riffing can grow wearisome, but in general the album delivers a fair enough share of the tension and excitement so important to this genre.

Accu§er were never all that original to begin with, and once drew some comparisons to mighty institutions like Metallica, which is pretty much where they stand now. Imagine fusing together the late 80s Metallica, with the Testament of the following decade, and then seasoning in some Mortal Sin and modern Paradox (the music, not the vocals), and you'd come up with something similar to Dependent Domination. The guitars are energetic, thick as a brick and provide the central focus of the band, but admittedly, the actual patterns and notes all feel as if they've been written a thousand times before, and better. That doesn't stop the album from being somewhat fun, especially when they kick off with "Beneath Your Dignity" and the incredibly forceful "Torn to Pieces". "Escape from the Oath" and "Dependent Domination" also have some solid, if more clinical sequences, and "Mastering Punishment" (great title) follows suit, though it's imbued with a little too much raw chugging bounce for my taste.

The deeper in you go, though, the less inspired this 8th album feels. I couldn't remember a thing about the last four songs, and that's a fairly large chunk of it. Frank Thorns' vocals here are aggressive and have a nice, crushing, constipated feel to them, but he never tries to assert any range, or any patterns that stand to memory; just a monotonous battering ram over the more volatile riffs. The drums and guitars are concrete, and the leads in particular tight, yet like a number of other modern thrash efforts (Onslaught's disappointing Sound of Violence comes to mind), they seem to lack the flat-out sticky riffs that were so crucial to the great works of the 80s. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing excessively bad about anything that Accu§er have tracked here, but despite its relative strength compared to anything they've recorded since Who Dominates Who? (1989), there is still much distance between this band and the top flight acts who they've outlasted, but never overrun. At least they're trying, and hell, it's the best album cover they've ever used.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.accuserdomination.com/

Accu§er - Taken by the Throat (1995)

After hitting their career low with 1994's Reflections, one might understand any apprehension to take the band Accu§er so seriously anymore. They had more shots than most bands to get the formula right, cycling through a number of labels, but at their creative apex in the late 80s, they produced just the one decent album of semi tech thrash (Who Dominates Who?) and a few that were merely average. Taken by the Throat, which is likely the Germans' most obscure effort to date, saw the band on their third label in three years, but it's nearly as dumb as its predecessor, a collection of hideously boring groove/thrash metal riffs that Frank Thorns smothers in the excess testosterone of angry, constipated, Panterrible vocals.

Slight bursts of inspiration make for a truly sad listen here, because as you soon as you hear that lead in "Healium", you begin to brighten up. What might this band have been accomplishing if the actual verse riffs were as good as the solo. I mean, it's not the work of virtuosos, but it's fun for a few seconds. "Taken by the Throat" is similar: you get 1-2 decent riffs reminding you of the old Accu§er (circa Repent), and then a wealth of sodden, soon forgotten grooves that any random groove metal band in the 1995 would have been shitting out. Certain tracks like "Fatal Vision" and "Condemnation" develop some atmosphere in their bridge sequences, but then it's back to the same, dull thump of interesting mutes and chords which show almost no thought at all. The closest you'll get to a passable, pure thrash track is probably "The Slug" which has a few machine like harmonics over its pummeling core, and another great lead, but even this is disposable.

I should note that Accu§er themselves were fed up by this point, they'd given it all they could and would fall into a deep slumber until the 21st century, when they'd regroup as Scartribe for a few demos, then decide that they missed their old handle. In 2010, they would finally produce Agitation, their first full-length in 15 years, and while it's nothing to get excited over, it was at least better than what the band were vomiting forth during their 1994-95 phase. Taken by the Throat is slightly preferable to Reflections, but only by a sliver, and by no means should anyone interested in this band's legacy begin their study outside their 1987-1989 material, unless he or she is masochistic.

Verdict: Fail [3.25/10]

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accu§er - Reflections (1994)

Though there are some trace elements of the semi-tech thrashing that flourished on efforts like Who Dominates Who? or the less able Repent, they are hardly in abundance, and Reflections is the most abysmal of Accu§er full-length efforts. The band had hit some rock bottom here, some indescribable need to feed off the trends of the decade that truly dampened their ability, and the ratio of miserable, derivative thrash/groove garbage here is simply too high for their more positive ideas to scale. It's rather a letdown, even for a band like this that has never struck gold or even silver with their idea mines, because I actually enjoy the simple aesthetics of the cover art, and was patiently hoping for some manner of sleeper hit here.

Alas, the material sadly never surpasses even the low bar set by the tracks from the sibling Confusion/Romance EP, those being "Cowboy on a String" with its "One"-like opening riffs and sledgehammer of dull artillery; and the trawling, mediocre "Misery" which teases with a decent riff or two in the bridge, but otherwise devolves into a sluggish muted groove-fest which thinks of nothing but moshing, flailing limbs. Certainly this is still thrash metal, if just for the method of tightly wound, distorted riffing and clear Bay Area influence (Metallica, Testament), but I can count the passable riffs on one hand, like the charging in "Unite - Divide", and even these are not worth listening to twice if you can avoid it. Frank Thorns gives his vocals an over abundance of rockiness, to the detriment of the bludgeoning below. Reflections sounds 'tough', like a brash kid brother to ...And Justice for All and Cowboys From Hell that forgets that those albums consisted of memorable songs.

I'll give Accu§er some credit that they don't go all out nu-metal or anything. This is very much a natural follow-up to Repent; it doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to see how the band might have desired to grow somewhat groovier for this, but it's so uninteresting as to become a chore just to survive through the nine songs. As much as I disliked Double Talk, there were just better songs and guitars there. Reflections does sound mean, with enough cartwheeling mosh hymns to fuel those that could care less about their own flashy displays of mock violence, but it's void of any other quality except for the CD booklet serving as kindling for a fire.

Verdict: Fail [2.75/10] (looking for an excuse to destroy)

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accu§er - Confusion/Romance EP (1994)

Accu§er were never considered one of the finer exports in German thrash, and had certainly taken a number of missteps prior to their 1994 output (i.e. Double Talk), but at least the band could claim that they were not total shite. Come the Confusion/Romance EP and the Reflections full-length, and I'm afraid they would have to withdraw such a claim, because these efforts represent the true bottoming out of an already mediocre body of work. This is where Accu§er flung away what modicum of decency their meaty, previous thrash effort Repent provided and truly subdued to the music industry. This particular EP is only a teaser, an accompaniment to the fouler, longer Reflections, so perhaps it could be considered the lesser crime, but it's still really bad.

First up we have a cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like a Hole". Now, being that this track was a huge success in the early 90s, and many metalheads had become fans of Trent Reznor's industrial rock legend, it's not such a surprising choice. Accu§er had already recorded a moderately disposable rendition of Die Krupps' "Metal Machine Music" on the last album, Repent. But the NIN cover is comparatively crap. The synth line of the original is simply altered to the guitar line, and Frank Thorns' bludgeoning vocals do a disservice to the otherwise catchy patterns of Reznor. There's another cover on this release, "Driver's Seat" (Stiff'n'the Tears), an English rock tune form the late 70s, similar to but predating Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World", and just as boring.

The new originals, "Confusion/Romance" and "Cowboy on a String" are equally horrendous; the former a pedestrian thrash groove with zero hooky riffs and beefy vocals which teases us with a half-decent thrash riff in the bridge that goes nowhere fast. The latter is even worse, with an opening volley that rips off the chugging bridge in Metallica's "One", and then proceeds to mangle another pure thrash rhythm with bad, harsh Biohazard-like barked rap vocals in the verse. The rest of the EP consists of two live cuts: "Misery" from Reflections, and "Repent" from the album of the same name. "Misery" has perhaps one decent riff in there, but it's saying a lot that "Repent" is better than anything else found here, or that the live cuts in general are the only element to this recording that is not knee deep in stink.

Confusion/Romance was obviously meant for the fans, a cute little package with some covers and other nonsense, but I can't see how even a fan of the band's lesser works would justify it with their attention and time. Things are/were not looking up for their 5th full-length album, and even if Accu§er was never a great or even original band to begin with, it's sad to see them sink to the level of regrettable convention that fouled so much of 90s metal.

Verdict: Epic Fail [1.5/10] (if I hurt at all I hurt alone)

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accu§er - Repent (1992)

Beyond the severely lacking Double Talk, belabored with foolishness, I was not expecting much out of Accu§er for the foreseeable future. Thus, when the band changed their logo for the fourth full-length Repent, the cross-bearer adorning its cover image, I was horrified that I was about to experience some major change for the worse, like perhaps a transition into proto-groove or nu-metal, which was then in its inception. Thankfully, that's just not the case for Repent, and it's actually a better effort than most that the band have released: meaty, honest thrash metal with thick bass-lines and simple but appropriate chugging brutality that was very easily the heaviest of their efforts to date, if not the best.

A lot of the riffs reek of Metallica's ...And Justice for All, if it was super charged and splattered with deeper, more aggressive vocals. Speaking of which, Eberhard Weyel had left the band at this point, so Frank Thorns took over those duties, and this explains the positive shift and the ballsy power being leveled behind "Rotting from Within", "Repent", and "Get Saved". The guitars have a lot of punch and impact to them, hitting straight for the gut, while not abandoning the slight spurts of clinical technicality that were present on the last few albums. These are not necessarily timeless classics that will be forming nostalgia in your mind that prompts immediate re-visitations, but they're not bad, and when the band branches out to the acoustic intro of "Sacrifice Machine" or the slower plodding of "The Drones", it's only to refill the listener's attention span for the further propulsion of "Nosferatu" or "Judgement Gone Blind".

They close this album with a cover of Die Krupps' "Metal Machine Music", and though the vocals render it a little cheesy, it's still an interesting choice, and loyal enough to the original. I just don't care for a few of the boring, chugged riffs there. The guitar tone is also pretty blocky throughout the entire album, and while this gives it a primal force, it also seems to drain the potential ballistic savagery. This is not a good album. It's not the equal of Who Dominates Who?, their best overall. There's really nothing here I would specifically seek out, but my head did bang to a few of the rhythms, and I liked the new logo. For the most part, Repent is a passable facelift for the band. It's tight, it's pissed off enough to stand toe to toe with a lot of the emerging groove metal tough guys of the 90s, but it doesn't abandon the whole central notion of 'thrash'. The band would go down that drain soon enough...

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accu§er - Double Talk (1991)

After the positive reaction I had to Who Dominates Who?, a tautly executed, well enough written thrash experience, I had hopes that Accu§er might truly hit their stride and carve a spot for themselves among the German elites. That was until I heard Double Talk, an extremely frustrating record which squanders what clinical tech riffing it can muster on some hideous choices, bad lyrics, and far less appealing vocals than the first two full-lengths. The core of the band's sound continues to shift away from the debut, and Double Talk represents the breaking of a levee, the slide into a disastrous spiral of mediocrity, as the thrashing landscape behind them begins to itself shift into the wasteland of the 90s.

One needs to venture no further than the first track here to hear the missteps. "Double Talk" is a banal, average thrasher with tight riffs but overbearing vocals that feel too sloppy and loud in the mix. Eberhard Weyel hasn't changed much from the last album, but there's just too much swagger in there and it sounds like he's about to be sick for half the track. "The Freeze" features some decent, descending muted melodies, but the rest of the track is a very lackluster attempt at the Bay Area style of Testament, Forbidden, etc. But these are not even the biggest offenders. "Flag Waver" is horrendous, with terrible lyrics that begin like a rant about the stereotype of the Republican presidential war monger, then devolves into more of a shitty commentary on Americans in general...

Capitalism... Chauvinism... Imperialism...
Consumerism... Paranoia... Patriotism...
Only a hypocrite can sell the American dream

Not that I'm prone to getting butt hurt over criticism of my country. Believe me, I'm a card carrying anti-establishmentarian myself, but married with the pathetic vocals, and shitty decisions like the funk breakdown before the 3 minute mark, it's a little hard to take Accu§er seriously. Another danging turd here is the last of the album's new studio tracks, "Alcowhore", an ode to the beer and booze that becomes intensely laughable with the meter of the lyrics over the music.

Please hear my call, 'Demon Alcohol'
You brought me down and left me alone
Look what you have done, 'whore alcohol'
Is this reality? is it me?

By the devil's beard, man, what are you jabbering on about? Tankard would like to have some words with you, my friend. Some commandments, even. What's really tragic here is that there are at least 3-4 really good riffs in this song, but they're trashed by the words. A few other inconsistent picks like "Money" and "Why Me" simply serve to seal the fate of this effort, and I find it telling that the best tracks are unanimously the CD bonus tracks, which are simply revisions from their debut album The Conviction: the 10+ minute "Accuser", "The Conviction" itself, and "Sadistic Terror", which has a pretty similar riff to Destruction's "Curse the Gods". None of these are necessarily spectacular, but they're at least focused down and aren't nearly as embarrassing as a few of the newer tracks. Put bluntly, this is one of the worst albums this German band has ever released.

Verdict: Fail [3.5/10] (I am a top gun fighter, the American dream....)

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accu§er - Who Dominates Who? (1989)

Say what you want about the band's consistently awful cover images, but at least through the 80s (up to 1991's Double Talk) they had the consistent theme of some Ultron looking robot mascot, first through just a glimpse and then out in the open. Here the mechanical thing is clasped in a homoerotic grapple with some muscled entity that represents 'mankind' as they fight for the Earth...well, it's a guess. From the previous year's Experimental Errors EP, I was expecting a fuller shift into straight thrashing territory, and with Who Dominates Who?, this is exactly what Accu§er delivered. Gone were most of the traces of melodic speed from the prior album, those have largely been manifest here through the leads, and damned if the leads aren't generally great.

The album also sounds fantastic, the best production of their career until arguably they arrived at their new, underwhelming 'comeback' album Agitation in 2010. The compositions are rich with riffs, and the mix really lends itself to the sort of impact bands like Destruction, Kreator and Metallica all had at their best. The vocals are like hatchets cutting through the finely plotted riffing, and the opening tracks "Master of Disaster" and "Who Pulls the Wire" both dump the band's previous albums on their asses. "Elected to Suffer" slows down the pace to some good, rock inflected thrashing, but "Symbol of Hate" and "Who Dominates Who?" offer unabated, high velocity thrashing with clinical, precision riffs, and the fun doesn't stop there. About the one criticism I hold of some of the later tracks (including the bonus material) is that they don't always pull off their length. For example, "Called to the Bench" is 8:22, and has a lot going on, but it's not always positive or interesting.

Still, for a band like Accu§er, who have never been able to breach the success barrier, this is extremely well written. The tones are punchy, the vocals pissed off, and the compositional skills not in question. Who Dominates Who? does strangely lack the ability to create memorable chorus parts or truly distinctive riffs, and it doesn't really improve or degrade with age, but it's tight enough to be placed just above the level of 'average'. Had the hooks been as undeniable as the level of talent going into their creation, this would probably have taken the band reasonably further than any other album in their career. As it stands, this is probably the place to start if you're interested in hearing them. The Conviction wasn't bad, and it's got a stronger melodic sensibility to it, with more classic metal hooks coursing through the thrash starved veins, but this sophomore was and remains their strongest output.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (switch on your terminal)

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accu§er - The Conviction (1987)

Cliches about not judging a book by its cover aside, the image that 'graces' Accuser's 1987 debut album The Conviction does not inspire confidence in its audio contents. Perhaps if the Terminator were some haggardly old judge, or whatever the hell that is pointing at us, I might feel some degree of menace. But honestly I just want to shudder at the quality, and unfortunately the music, while not quite in the same dregs, does leave something to be desired. You could think of the band as a midway point between the bustling guitar frenzy of their countrymen Destruction and Rage, and the dirty, lower register vocal barking of Metal Church's David Wayne. On paper, this sounds like a match appropriately made in Hell, but the songs just sort of rifle straight through the consciousness and out into the nether void of mediocrity.

However, early on, they do attempt to snatch your attention with a few of the more fluid, abrasive numbers like "Evil Liar" and "Down By Law". The former has faster paced riffs like a "Trapped Under Ice" mixed, with the snarling dog vocals barking across the top; the latter opens with a decent melody before it basically transforms into Rage, the shrieked vocals sounding almost like Peavey Wagner. I think Rage even has a track with the same name, though they do structure differently. "Law of War" and "Screaming for Guilt" continue straight along this path, but the band's namesake "Accuser" thankfully puts the brakes on to provide a more dynamic experience, one that is 10 1/2 minutes long...opening with clean guitars and then weaving through faster and mid-paced material with some solid riffs. "Sadistic Terror" and "The Conviction" are suitably snarling and angry, the latter with a great charging riff similar to "Damage, Inc." and other Master of Puppets fare. In fact, if you slightly changed the vocals, that might pass for a Metallica song from that era.

When you compare all the details, The Conviction is perhaps one of the most consistent records of Accuser's entire lineage. A few of the later works have better individual songs, but on the whole they're uneven, and this one you can at least listen through as an angrier alternative to, say, Vectom. I would never call it 'good', but there was clearly some effort in the writing, even if its clearly derivative of a few obvious sources. The mix is quite good, with a loud bass alongside the pummeling guitar tones, and though I don't really care for the vocals, they are at least bitter enough sounding to bang your head along. Albums like Finished with the Dogs, Persecution Mania, Terrible Certainty and Execution Guaranteed pretty much ensured that little attention would be cast upon this record, but there's nothing cringe inducing apart from the cover art.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (beyond the clouds of vice)

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accu§er - Agitation (2010)

The reunion of 80s-90s thrash icons is so commonplace today that it seems difficult to keep up with them all, and even bands that were never all that good to begin with have heard the call to return to the source of their inspiration and release a new studio effort. Enter Germany's Accu§er, a band which could be deemed inconsistent at best through their decade-long career from about 1986-1995, after which we've only heard peeps in demo material and the ill-fated decision to change their name to Scartribe. I doubt there's a single full-length album from this act that I could lavish much praise upon. Who Dominates Who?, Double Talk and Repent all had a handful of decent tracks, but I found the mid-90s records wholly ignorable.

15 years after Taken By The Throat, the band has brought us a 7th full-length effort called Agitation, with a chalkboard meets puppet-master cover image that seems a little refreshing and modern compared to all the nuclear torn cities, zombies, gas masks and beer drinking sods we usually see gracing the cover of today's youngest crop of thrashers trying to cop a buck and a fan or two from better days and better bands. Only a single member remains here from the band's 1987 debut The Conviction, vocalist/guitarist Frank Thoms, but lead guitarist René Schütz was with Accu§er since 1988's mediocre Experimental Errors EP. The rhythm section of Frank Kimpel (bass) and Olli Fechner are remnants of Scartribe, and in fact this entire line-up is just Scartribe transplanted back to the original band name, which makes sense, as the band were still playing thrash metal and the old moniker carries a lot more weight among collectors and fans in the underground.

I was surprised that Agitation is not only a return to form, but actually better than most of their original records, if not necessarily good. They play an aggressive, meaty brand of thrash metal that consists of pummeling force mutes glazed over with slightly technical, melodic guitar lines that keep the songs feeling fresh and forward. "No Feats" is an exciting opener, with some good leads and thoughtful melody wound against Thoms brute vocals. The band never conveyed the same speed or excellence of peers like Kreator, Destruction and Tankard, and the chugging rhythms at the base of the song are hardly unique, but they do a cleanup job here which doesn't just seem like mindless, repetitive cloning of their prior albums.

A lot of the tracks do follow a very similar course. "Chaincrusher"and "Century of the Fall" feel very similar to "No Feats", with minor alterations to the pounding riffs, tempos and melodies, but the band do lapse into a coma for a few slower, groovier songs I didn't care for, namely "King of South" and "Strength of All" which matches a dumb trod with a faster, quality lead and then a forgettable clean guitar sequence. There is a nice little instrumental break in the title track, but sadly this is followed by the most 'mixed' song on the album, "Prophecies", which has a great lead sequence and some fine melodic thrust in the verse, but a whole lot of shitty ass breakdowns that I would expect out of some bad American band like Machine Head or Chimaira. "Criminal Solution" and "The Eye of the Truth" both have their feet wet in some modern groove also, but in general they are far better composed and exhibit a little life left in the maturing band.

Agitation is not an album I'll be returning to, because I wish the band had gone all out with the thrashing and left the weaker, 90s groove metal mentality out of the session entirely. But one must keep in mind that the band's earlier work was rarely worth hearing to begin with, so this album seems more 'tight' and consistent by comparison. Sadly, that's not enough to stand out in a world where we have fellow German acts like Kreator and Tankard, who still release great efforts despite careers that verge on 30 years of existence. I banged my head a few times to this, and appreciated the spikes of melodic, semi-tech picking that the band are more than capable of crafting, but in the end it just wasn't enough to pull the record over the hump.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

http://www.accuser-online.de/

Accuser - Experimental Errors EP (1988)

Is that Brainiac on the cover? (Ed: I stand corrected, it is Ultron.)

Accuser was a relatively obscure German thrash band, but they were fairly prolific in the 80s-90s, having released six full-length albums. Experimental Errors was their 2nd official release, a six-track EP nestled between The Conviction debut and their sophomore full-length Who Dominates Who? The style here is not unlike other German bands, perhaps Vendetta or Deathrow but with vocals that sound quite a lot like Kreator's Mille.

The EP opens with an acoustic piece "The Persuasion" before busting out "Black Suicide", a slow to mid-paced though technical thrasher with some decent leads and barking vocals. There are some good parts to this song but unfortunately it's not highly exciting. "Terroristic Violence" picks up the pace a little, and it sounds a LOT like Kreator. "Technical Excess" has a good riff or two and it's by far the most exciting song here. Had the rest only been more like this...but wait, they are! "F.H.W.C." is another strong track with a good punchy sound to it.

I believe this was vinyl-only upon its release, but it was tossed onto the re-issue of The Conviction in the 90s. If you can pick it up in that format, it may be worth it, because their first few full-lengths are better than this material, gems of 2nd rate German thrash. However, it is not worth tracking down on its own. They simply sound here like a pale imitation of better bands that were going on at the time: Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, and so forth.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10] (we were warned, after all)

http://www.myspace.com/accuser2008