I bumped to Aleister on 'Total Virulence', Virulence Records' 1990 collection of French thrash/death metal mayhem. The platter also features better known names such as Merciless and Loudblast, but then-unknown Aleister's driving thrashing on 'Schizophrenia' immediately left a mark in my brain.

Later, I found Aleister's debut demo 'Annihilation' (1988) downloadable in the net, on some blog. I don't oppose the idea of free downloads of demo material, but any commercial stuff is a totally different thing. Anyway, this is the first demo of three demos the band put out in 1988-1989. Their sole album 'Tribal Tech' came out in 1994. I've been hunting for that for several years now...

'Secret of Peace' starts the demo in a marching way, and moves to a mid-paced headbanging part and after that to more insane stuff. It just gets a bit intermittent, thanks to annoying rhythm structure. The vocals are psychotic unchanging shouting. After wicked guitar solos opening, 'Sell Lies' is far more fluidy song than the opener. In all, it is very Testament-esque (yeah, 'The Legacy' style [1987]), even the vocals are more varying now. 'Disciples' is more eerie with its non-distorted guitars at the beginning, and yes, sounds like old Testament, but more like 'The New Order' (1988). Another cool one, definitely. 'Annihilation' begins with an awful riff, but soon turns to a more driving mid-paced song, that can be rhythm-wise compared to Megadeth's classic 'Mary Jane'. Before three minute's mark it's time for fast part with finger-melting soloing. The band kind of fluctuate between insanity and melodiousness. And the latter they never really find.

The recording or maybe the transfer is bad, because the other of the guitars is really low with its volume. It was recorded in a studio, so maybe it's the transfer to digital format.

Well, why don't you download it too if basic and raw thrash metal is sounds good to you!? Especially the songs number two and three are lovely ('Sell Lie' even made its way on the full length album). The demo is more about desire than about skill.

Reviewed by Lane
12/29/2009 16:04