Band:	Holy Terror
Album:	El Revengo
Style:
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Marcel Hubregtse

Disc I
01. A Fools Gold/Terminal Humor/Mind Wars
02. Christian Resistance
03. Damned By Judges
04. No Resurrection
05. Evils Rising
06. Mortal Fear
07. Distant Calling
08. Alpha Omega (The Bringer Of Balance)
09. Blood Of The Saints
10. Black Plague
11. Terror & Submission
12. Tomorrows End
13. Guardians Of The Netherworld

Disc II [audio]
Live in Dendermonde Belgium
01. Black Plague
02. Evils Rising
03. Judas Reward
04. Debt Of Pain
05. Distant Calling
06. Christian Resistance
07. Blood Of The Saints
08. Immortal Wasteland
09. Alpha Omega

Live In Fort Lauderdale, Florida
10. Do Unto Others
11. Christian Resistance
12. Alpha Omega

Live In Milan, Italy
13. Judas Reward
14. Black Plague

Disc III [DVD]
01. Live sets from:
    1 - Milwaukee
    2 - Chicago
    3 - Anaheim
02. Judas Reward Video
03. Slide Show

What I have always regarded as one of the most, or even THE most, criminally underrated thrash bands of the mid-eighties all of a sudden resurfaced this year with this cd/dvd package.
Guitarist Kurt Colfelt left Agent Steel in 1985 after having recorded Skeptics Apocalypse with them. Together with Keith Deen (vocals), Mike Alvord (guitar ex-Black Widow), Floyd Flanary (bass ex-Thrust) and Jack Schwartz (drums ex-Dark Angel) he, now known as Kurt Kilfelt, forms Holy Terror. After just one demo they get signed by the, British, Music For Nations label. Schwartz is replaced with Joe Mitchell and with him they record Terror & Submission which is released in May 1987. A year later Mind Wars is released. After that release not too much is heard from the band ever again. And they eventually split in early 1991.
And now, all of a sudden, we get the El Revengo package thrown at us. For fans of the band this package is a must. What we get here is 4 songs of Mind Wars and the entire Terror & Submission album on disc 1. On disc 2 we get a full live set recorded (via the soundboard) in Dendermonde, Belgium from the fall of 1987 when Holy Terror supported D.R.I. on their European tour. And also two live tracks from Milan,Italy from that same tour and three more live tracks from Fort Luaderdale, Florida. The DVD side of disc 2 has three live sets a video for Judas Reward and a slide show.
Holy Terror's brand of thrash has enough melody in it to remain memorable, yet is filled with unexpected hooks without losing its roughness. This in combination with Keith Deen's distinguishable vocals creates a typical Holy Terror sound.
The four Mind War songs are remixes from 2004 as done by Jack Endino and sound a lot better than the original 1988 recording. Personal favourite of those four is opener A Fools Gold/Terminal Humor/Mind Wars. Pay close attention to the guitar line between the 4th and 5th minute of this song and you'll hear where Megadeth probably got the inspiration from for their chorus to Hangar 18. The entire Terror & Submission album featured here is the 1988 version as remixed by Casey McMackin and Kurt Kilfelt for Roadrunner. This remix is also a step up from the original recordings. Personal favourites here are certainly Evils Rising, Mortal Fear, and Alpha Omega (The Bringer Of Balance).
Disc 2 with both the audio live part and the dvd live part and video are probably only interesting to fans of this band. All the recordings (both the audio and video) are of bootleg quality. The Dendermonde set has the best sound to it of them all since it was recorded over the soundboard. The video part is very grainy but gives you a good idea of what Holy Terror were like on stage.
So all in all, this is a nice package for the people who are familiar with Holy Terror and for those who are totally unfamiliar with this criminally underrated band. I'd rate it a 9 for long-time fans as myself and an 8 for newcomers.