Band:	Anacrusis
Album:	Manic Impressions
Style:	Progressive thrash metal
Release date:	1991
Guest review by:	Markku

01. Paint A Picture
02. I Love The World [New Model Army cover]
03. Something Real
04. Dream Again
05. Explained Away
06. Still Black
07. What You Became
08. Our Reunion
09. Idle Hours
10. Far Too Long

The saga of Anacrusis continues. In 1991 they released their third album called Manic Impressions. Again facing different problems (which unfortunately was common to many great and innovative bands form the same era) but still being able to release an album which could be considered a landmark in the progressive metal scene.

As all albums of Anacrusis Manic Impressions brings something new to the listener. The music is calmer than before, it's not neccessarily slow but it has that kind of distant or cold feeling to it. The songs are more complex, the overall structures of the songs are varied, larger progress can be heard in the drum patterns and complexity of the guitar riffs (Ken Nardi's words: By making the riffs themselves more complicated, this would make the musicianship stand out more than a boring ten minute guitar solo for example). Change in the drum department can be explained by the fact Chad Smith (there's a lot of dispute around the fact if it's the same guys who plays for Red Hot Chilli Peppers) joined the band after Mike Owens left, Mike was a fast and energetic player, Chad on the other hand was a disciplined and technical musician. The vocals are pretty much the same as in the other albums, although Ken Nardi doesn't do that ultra high pitched screaming as much as on Reason and Suffering Hour (except in the song Paint A Picture).

This album can be for sure called progressive thrash, it's atmospheric, it's slower at times, it features some strange altering drum rhythms and so on.

So basically what we have here is an original and overlooked (now and back when it was released) worthy melodic/techy/progressive (call it whatever you want to) thrash album ahead of it's time.

* "I love The World" is a New Model Army cover