Review by Carl on November 7, 2021.

My all-time favorite album is Slaughter's Strappado. Back in the early 90's, when I started collecting records, I had read about the album in an old copy of Aardschok/Metal Hammer magazine, where it got a solid 10 out of 10, which immediately piqued my interest. It proved to be a very elusive LP to find, because it took me years (and a ton of letters) to track it down. What I did find more easily was another LP by that same Slaughter, called Not Dead Yet. It filled the void at the time, and I played the shit out of it, loving every note it had to offer.

Where Slaughter was a pretty crude thrash band that combined Hellhammer/early Celtic Frost elements with influences of early Slayer and hardcore punk, Strappado (the follow-up band to Slaughter who released Not Dead Yet, as it turned out) went in a far more technical and pure thrash metal direction. The hardcore punk simplicity had taken a back seat, and in its place there had come longer, more thought out songs, with more riff based guitar work. The music still has faster parts, but compared to its predecessor the band scaled back on the insane velocity. The more up-tempo parts are interspersed with heavier mid-tempo sections, delivering a varied offering of songs, in which the intricate guitar leads of Bobby Sadzak take a noticeable role. Comparisons with Testament's 80's output and "Ride The Lightning" era Metallica could be made, but in their faster moments, like in the title track, the spirit of Sacrifice and Voivod is present, albeit in the distance. The execution of the music is on point, and it has to be said that they deliver their thrash metal with more grit than most of their colleagues did at the time. The only link they have left of the Slaughter days are the gruff vocals of Dave Hewson, being a perfect fit for the raucous yet controlled approach the band has on offer. The production might not have been top of the line back in 1990 when this was first released, but it still does the job. Everything is where it should be in the mix, and the music sounds powerful enough to not disappoint. Hell, this stuff even wipes the floor with 99 percent of present day thrash bands, simple as that.

It is not difficult to understand why Strappado (the band) got bogged down into obscurity until the early 00's though. In 1990, thrash had almost run its course, lagging behind the growing legion of death metal bands that were becoming the reigning force in the underground. Thrash had been burning itself out in a deluge of bands and was fast becoming outdated, with bands coming up around this time falling between the cracks of time. Not Dead Yet was one of the better late thrash releases from that time, but got shafted by poor distribution (if any) and probably also life getting in the way, I imagine. If it wasn't for infamous/legendary bootleg label Headache Records releasing it under the Slaughter moniker, perhaps it would have ended up on the t(h)rash heap of metal history with other obscurities such as Estigia, Ardkore, Killjoy and Cry Of Terror. The cruel irony here is that Slaughter helped inspire many of the death metal bands that replaced the thrash style of Strappado.

For me personally, Not Dead Yet is still a great thrash album that combines Bay Area thrash with harsher elements and excellent playing, and I recommend it to everyone into the style. It's not as great as Slaughter's Strappado, but there is far crappier thrash out there, that's for sure.

Rating: 9 out of 10