Anacrusis Suffering Hour

Anacrusis 'Suffering Hour' (Axis 1988)

Vinyl Villians, in Elm Row, is an institution in Edinburgh well known by all record lovers. It's the place where we have all sold records in desperate times and it's the place you are always guaranteed, like every second hand record shop in Scotland, to be able to get all of Marillion's back catalogue for a reasonable price!

One thing that has always annoyed me about them is the fact that they have sections for Jazz, World Music, Dance etc. but not one for metal or punk. It's just bizarre that every time I have been searching for a Celtic Frost rarity I have to work my way through 50 Carpenters and Camel records! It's not that hard to put together a metal section. Mind you, it did work out for both of us on occasion as I would often buy random stuff just to check it out.

One Saturday I cycled along from Meadowbank and went in on the off chance that there would be more than Metallica picture discs for me to look at. I was delighted upon entering to see, for the first and only time, the much longed for metal section.

It was as if I had entered a parallel universe where the gods of vinyl had conspired to create this opportunity just for me. It was unbelievable, and I could barely contain myself. Obviously somebody had fallen upon the aforementioned desperate times and had brought in their entire metal collection just for me to pick up.

What a collection too, not filled with well known classics but almost entirely made up of second or third wave thrash bands on lower division record labels like Metal Works, New Renaissance and Axis. These were bands that I had dim memories of, adverts in Metal Forces, and glowing reviews from Bernard Doe, but had never had the funds nor wherewithal to collect at the time. I'm sure you can understand how excited I was.

I picked up between 15 and 25 records, quickly brokered a cash discount, ran to the bank, paid up and cycled home for a weekend of serious metal indulgence. The metal section has never been seen again. It's like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Anacrusis were big favourites of Metal Forces in the late 80s but the only person I knew who rated them was Deev. Deev's taste in thrash could be trusted and he was right regarding Anacrusis. Admittedly, I came to them too late for them to make the same impact as if I'd heard them in 1988, but this is still good, solid thrash.

Anacrusis are fast but know how to ease off the throttle and deliver slow sections which carry a real threat. 'Butcher's Block' stalks along like Jason Voorhees and 'Present Tense' delivers great control just when you think it's going to go into warp speed with great Dave Lombardo style snare/ride work. They have real dynamics which reveal their main influences, as mentioned in their thanks list, Trouble, Slayer and Pink Floyd.

The vocals are pretty unique ranging from trad metal squealing to Tom Araya rasping to melodic clean style and the odd Tom G Warrior death grunt. The variety of vocal styles and almost death metal tone to the guitars are possibly best shown on the storming, but regrettably monikered, 'Frigid B*tch'.

Anacrusis are discussed at some length in the excellent book 'Mean Deviation' due their pushing of thrash into more progressive realms, most evident on 'The Twisted Cross', but that transition was more apparent on later albums as this is still very much within the bounds of thrash, albeit a good notch or two above some far more popular bands.

Innovative, well written and enjoyable thrash from a great band. Enjoy.

Peace