Swiss Poltergeist made three albums during their career in late 1980's and early 1990's. 'Behind My Mask' is the middle one and the only one I've heard. After Poltergeist was exorcised, guitarist and song writer V.O. Pulver went to form bruisers Gurd.

Poltergeist's music is a mixture of US/German thrash metal and heavy metal. The pace is mainly fast. The guitar riffage is speed metal influenced, the drumming is intense, but the vocals are mainly in heavy metal style. Although André Grieder is an able singer, his voice is also powerful. The vocals are the main melody ingredient, even though there's some tasty guitar leads. 'We Are the People' is a killer thrashy opener, probably the most brutal song on the album. The title song presents more variety, being partly heavy metal. 'Act of Violence' has some funky stuff in it, but still it belongs among the better material. 'Grey' is a fantastic dark semi-acoustic piece. After it, the album offers nothing new anymore, except outro-ish 'Driftin' away'. The songs are simply on the boring side, with some tasty parts heard every now and then. Feels like the band lost some enthusiasm towards the end, who knows. Is that the infamous disease of vinyl releases; good side one, bland side two? The lyrics are mostly about everyday life, from unity of West and East Germanys, drugs, politics, war and human emotions to 'Chato's Land', inspired by the movie with same name. Generally, in quite basic English. Oh yeah, I shouldn't forget about the backing vocals; there's a thrash shouter choir, including Destruction's Schmier among others.

The album lacks of powerful production. The drums are the thing that create the album's lower end, but otherwise this is a trebly affair. However, the balancing of the instruments is still okay and everything is nicely audible. The guitar sound has thrashy bite in it and bass has 'Practice What You Preach' syndrome. A what?! Well, I remember hearing this kind of metallic bass sound on Testament's 'Practice What You Preach' (1989) platter! The cover art is unique, done by drummer Alex (on this album the drums were played by a guy named Gino, though). I don't remember seeing similar concept.

'Behind My Mask' is partly a very good album, partly a blandish affair. You should give it a spin if thrashier metal and heavy metal vocals sound like a good mixture to you. Definitely more interesting than Gurd, methinks.

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
05/16/2005 19:29