Band:	Anacrusis
Album:	Suffering Hour
Style:	Progressive thrash metal
Release date:	1988
Guest review by:	markku

01. Present Tense
02. Imprisoned
03. R.O.T. (Reign Of Terror)
04. Butcher's Block
05. A World To Gain
06. Frigid Bitch
07. Fighting Evil
08. Twisted Cross
09. Annihilation Complete / Disemboweled
10. NIB [Unreleased bonus] [Black Sabbath cover]

Anacrusis is one of those excellent but unfortunately much underrated and quite unknown bands and "Suffering Hour" is their first album. It is not one of those planned "write and record" albums as only four of the nine songs were written while the band was together as a whole. Some songs come from the vocalist/guitarist's Ken Nardi's high-school band Heaven's Flame (which also featured Chad Smith as a drummer who joined Anacrusis in 1990) and some songs were written by the band's guitarist Kevin Heidbreder before Ken Nardi joined them. "Suffering Hour" was recorded by the band itself, in seven days and with their own funds.

About the music now - "Suffering Hour" is the thrashiest and least melodic Anacrusis album. Just like the other Anacrusis releases, this album stands on the fine line between being too melodic and too extreme (this is one of the reasons why they are an excellent band). It's fast enough to make you jump around when you feel like it and there aren't any ballads on the album (although there are some songs which in the beginning are slow but end up faster and heavier).

The most remarkable part of the sound is the vocals. Basically, they are a mix of high-pitched screeching and higher clean vocals. From time to time there are also lower clean vocals. The vocals give the music an extra edge and emotion. Instruments are played well, nothing bad to say about that.

I'm not going to point out the best songs, I will leave it to you. Oh, I almost forgot - all bass fans check out the killer beginning of the song "NIB", pretty cool bass lines.

So what we have here is a top-notch thrash album, highly recommended to anybody who's into thrash. Why not a masterpiece? Well, it's nothing obvious but it just doesn't have that magical sparkle. Have a good listening!