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1987 metal demo reissue.
Our take: Escape Tapes brings us a straight reissue of the 1987 demo tape by this thrash / crossover band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Stylistically, this is right on the nose of what I think of as crossover thrash… the riffing sounds like it’s influenced by Slayer’s first couple of records, while the rhythm section takes on the dramatic rhythmic shifts of hardcore punk, with a Reed Mullin-esque drummer who has a knack for squeezing catchy but unexpected fills into every nook and cranny. The vocalist is a pure hardcore shouter that sounds like he’s from New York rather than Wisconsin, reminding me of bands like the Abused, Antidote, and early Agnostic Front. The Answer Within also has my favorite kind of production, a competent but bare-bones studio recording where every instrument is audible and there are no studio enhancements or gimmickry. Even the tape’s intro piece, a John Carpenter-inspired haunting synth piece called “C.I.D.,” rules. As hard as this goes, I’m surprised some enterprising metalhead hasn’t picked this up for some kind of deluxe reissue, but I prefer this straight recreation of the original artifact.
Our take: Escape Tapes brings us a straight reissue of the 1987 demo tape by this thrash / crossover band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Stylistically, this is right on the nose of what I think of as crossover thrash… the riffing sounds like it’s influenced by Slayer’s first couple of records, while the rhythm section takes on the dramatic rhythmic shifts of hardcore punk, with a Reed Mullin-esque drummer who has a knack for squeezing catchy but unexpected fills into every nook and cranny. The vocalist is a pure hardcore shouter that sounds like he’s from New York rather than Wisconsin, reminding me of bands like the Abused, Antidote, and early Agnostic Front. The Answer Within also has my favorite kind of production, a competent but bare-bones studio recording where every instrument is audible and there are no studio enhancements or gimmickry. Even the tape’s intro piece, a John Carpenter-inspired haunting synth piece called “C.I.D.,” rules. As hard as this goes, I’m surprised some enterprising metalhead hasn’t picked this up for some kind of deluxe reissue, but I prefer this straight recreation of the original artifact.