Review by Faithless on December 13, 2020.

Morbid Saint was a band that came a little late to the great explosion of thrash metal in the United States and other parts of the world like Germany. Their debut album called Spectrum Of Death was released in 1990, when bands like Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Dark Angel, Kreator, and Destruction (among others) had already established a career with classic albums within the thrash metal scene. However, Spectrum Of Death has left a devastating crater within the collective memory of headbangers who go beyond the commercially successful bands and who dig deep into the underground to unearth gems like the one Morbid Saint crafted back in the days.

Only with a demo called Lock Up Your Children, which was the blueprint for the development of their opus Spectrum Of Death, the band came swinging the axe of brutality tight enough to leave a deep wound into the metal scene. Even though death metal was a THING back then and thrash metal was on their way to hibernation state. Spectrum of Death 7 relentless tracks and 1 instrumental in 32 minutes (nothing to envy "Reign in Blood" by Slayer). The record goes straight to business, no intros, no fillers; just killer songs and pure violence in the form of raw trash metal. I have to say that the band does not only stick to the classic thrash metal formula of tupa, tupa drums, not at all. These guys are so heavy, extreme, and aggressive that the line between death & thrash metal is very thin. The drums go double bass almost all the time, guitars feel like claws ripping flesh and the voice is raspy as fuck! I think Morbid Saint takes its time to polish their sound and make it way different from their peers, especially in the Bay Area scene. Brutality wise we can compare Morbid Saint with American bands like Possessed and Dark Angel; however, the band resembles more to Teutonic acts like Exhumer, Kreator, and Destruction. The sheer brutality and uncompromised attitude of their compositions are on the edge of death/thrash metal. Now that we have a general impression of the band's sound, I would like to dissect the tracks a bit more to give legit justice to this missing link into the foundations of extreme music called Spectrum of Death.

The album hits you in the face with 'Lock Up Your Children' and gives you no time to react! Just go with the flow and try not to perish while you try to recover from the knockout. Nonstop drums pounding your head at the speed of light and some memorable guitar hooks and shreds are the staples of this record. The songwriting and music approach is simple yet effective almost in a punk fashion, in your face. 'Burn At The Stake' has a more rhythmic approach and some gallops are also included to make the record more memorable and not just blasting from beginning to end (which is good but I think something positive about the album is that it breathes and does not suffocate the listener with a wall of noise). 'Assassin' is a longer tune and it builds into more elaborate structures and complete ideas in the song-writing department. The structure of the song makes more sense in the way the instruments tell a story. Pat Lind's vocals are violent and also have a demonic punk approach, spitting the lyrics like a snake spits venom. 'Damien' comes back to the shorter and more explosive songs from the record. Killer riffs and shreds compacted in a small track that resembles German bands like Kreator in cornerstone albums like "Pleasure to Kill" and "Endless Pain". The next track 'Crying For Death' is another banger of a song, it devastates and destroys everything in its path. Then, we have the self-titled track 'Spectrum of Death' which is an intro that connects for me, the best song in the whole album; 'Scars'. This song checks all the boxes previously mentioned as essential in the record, brutal assaults in the kit, memorable and killer riffs all around, and the infernal raspy voice spitting hate and venom. 'Scars' manages to keep your head banging for 7 plus minutes, it is the longest song and thus the most elaborated one in the whole record. This forgotten jewel closes with 'Beyond The Gates Of Hell'; and it kicks off with the most memorable and killer drum fill from the whole album. The song keeps the fast and violent pace that you have experienced along the way, there is not any filler in this record; all the songs are crafted to make you bang your head like there's no tomorrow. Indeed, I consider that some songs at the beginning of the album could have developed more to expand the devastating experience just a bit more.

Spectrum of Death is a classic, underrated, and forgotten piece of art in the thrash metal scene. There is no doubt that the band came late to the party and that's one of the reasons why their debut record was kind of buried by time and dust back in the day but now it is considered a banger of an album and a must-have for any metal collector. Unfortunately, the band entered a state of hiatus after the release of Spectrum of Death, until 2015 in which they released their follow-up called Destruction System. I recommend this band not only to the die-hard fans of thrash metal but also to any truly metal lover that wants to listen to a killer record. Essential, classic, underrated, and violently fast thrash metal, go and get it!

Rating: 10 out of 10