Back around 1990, my friend Jørgen, who also writes for this site, introduced me to a US band called Anacrusis. I bought a vinyl record entitled 'Reason'. I'm still the proud owner of that vinyl record - it's one of the treasures of my collection, no less!

'Reason' was something else. It was thrash metal, but definitely not thrash the way Exodus, Megadeth and all the others did it. It was, above and beyond all, technical and progressive, yet it has the genre typical lyrical brutality.

What made Anacrusis stand out beside the blend of prog and thrash was singer/guitarist Kenn Nardi's vocal performance. He sported, and still sports, one of the most charismatic and characteristic voices in metal, brimming with on one hand fragile emotion and on the other shrill, paranoid screams of madness.

Despite the release of four strong albums that were praised by many critics, Anacrusis never really made the grade sales wise back then and finally called it quits in 1993, immediately after the release of 'Screams and Whispers'. Not accessible enough? Lack of marketing on the label's behalf? Grunge? All valid reasons. There was nothing wrong with the quality of the music, that's for sure.

Never mind the past; the present self-released work of art contains the two first albums, 'The Suffering Hour' and 'Reason', re-recorded. The release counts as a comeback album in its own right. Why? Well, listening to the original recordings, you soon realise that studios weren't always top-knotch back then. Especially if the money was tight. I probably didn't realise back then since the standards were comparetively lower in general, but the sound was, well, poor.

This is an opportunity for young(er) music metal fans to hear an updated, better sounding version of one of the bands that really moved some of us 20 years ago. Anacrusis was a groundbreaking band back then  - I'm just hoping that the world is now finally ready for them.

Enjoy this value-for-money package - order it from the band's website now!