DEVASTATION

Students of late '80s thrash know that some damn good bands got shafted when the scene shifted its focus to death metal. DEVASTATION's first two albums were pretty badass in their own right, arguably the best the burgeoning Texas thrash scene had to offer, but it was "Idolatry" that really upped the ante for this Corpus Christi group. In a just world, it would have been their "Arise" — smart, classy, well-written and played, thought-provoking lyrically, yet still as intense and pummeling as ever, with brooding midtempo moments like the title track nestled next to blazing, head-down thrash like "Never Believe". It's a dark, paranoid, murky record, one of the unsung gems of the latter thrash era, going in and out of print and commanding respect among a discerning few since its original 1991 release.

While it's great to see it back in print in any form (the 1999 import Century Media reissue getting harder and harder to find),one minor technical glitch makes for a challenging listen here. I dunno if it was due to tape edits in the original mix, and remastering has brought it out louder, but there are numerous places where the double-kick drums drag just a bit, making for a distracting little "click" here and there that kills the momentum. It sounds minor, but it gets annoying after a while, and it seems like something that coulda been fixed.

Aside from that, though, the big selling point here are the three bonus tracks — an all-new song called "Blood For Blood", and reworked early cuts "Desolation" and "Tomorrow We Die". While the two '80s songs sound great — vocalist Rodney Dunsmore trading in his wheezy yell of yore for a more throaty, Billy Milano-esque vocal, and the guitars biting through nicely — the new tune is a big letdown. The energy level really drops on "Blood For Blood", Dunsmore sounds pretty bad on it, and the song goes on and on without ever really catching any of that DEVASTATION spark. It's not terrible, but it's generic, and it pales next to the band's earlier, better work.

It pains me to give a such a classic album a 6 — if you can track down an earlier pressing of the CD, add three points to the rating. But the so-so new song and the distracting production noise add up to a reissue that could have been done better, and should have been, to show respect for the material it's archiving. In some cases, it might be better to leave obscurities to the realm of the collectors, especially if the reissue can't do the band justice.