Band:	Vendetta (GER)
Album:	Brain Damage
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	October 24, 1988
Guest review by:	Ch'ti

01. War
02. Brain Damage
03. Conversation
04. Precious Existence
05. Never Die
06. Love Song
07. Fade To Insanity
08. Dominance Of Violence
09. Metal Law

How to renew a genre before it renews itself. Vendetta (GER) guides the listener with their album Brain Damage, which explores in a more innovative way a genre with a well-established style.

I will be pretty quick with this review: honestly, the album is not incredible, although obviously it's still very good, but the most shocking thing is how they include elements that are ahead of their time. First, let's talk about the ups and downs, begining with the vocals, which are many times not up to par with the rest of the instruments; after all, whether they are ahead of their time or not, bad vocals are timeless. However, fortunately, when talking about the guitars or the drums, we're on another level.

The track "Fade To Insanity" is demonstrative: Vendetta (GER) shows us the power of the drums and the percussive riffs of the guitars. The song is introduced by a small guitar solo, which bears a resemblance at the beginning to the introductory riff of the track "Panic Attack" by Dream Theater (it would not be surprising to me if they were inspired by this band). However, this riff quickly transforms into a guitar cover of Beethoven's 9th symphony, which is both original and ingenious in keeping the listener's attention, always a better way than the 'cry of a parrot out of nowhere' share (do not hesitate to comment if you recognize the reference).

If you listen to Brain Damage, you will quickly hear that it sounds different to other thrash albums released in the 80s, as they include a lot of elements that are close to the sounds of progressive thrash and groove thrash, the latter style only developing in the mid-90s. I sometimes had the impression that Vendetta (GER) has traveled in time to bring some elements back from the future of thrash metal; there are certainly still the main elements of this genre, as a lot of tracks from the album still have the very fast riffs so distinctive of the genre, but they integrate freshness in their songs, which sometimes don't sound at all like thrash music from the 80s. I am thinking in particular of "Precious Existence", which leans towards progressive thrash and uses slightly slower riffs during most of the music, slower riffs that arrived on later thrash albums that came together within a context of growing popularity among the uninitiated to heavy metal. For example, one can talk about Metallica's Black Album, which is close to completing the transition to heavy metal, but also Megadeth's Countdown To Extinction, which adopts a style of thrash metal crossed with heavy. In general, the band does not have riffs as saturated as we find in the classics of the genre, like Master Of Puppets or Reign In Blood (and to a lesser extent, The Legacy).

Even today, many of the riffs are still very punchy, and the album remains a very pleasant listen, although, to be honest, as it gets older, to say that the album is timeless is wrong in my opinion. Nevertheless, it is the mark an album leaves and the extent to which it is able to inspire future generations that make an album legendary; with age, Brain Damage can seem to be an album among many others, but knowing to what extent they succeed in seducing by changing the formula a little, I am rather admiring Vendetta (GER).

To conclude, a very good album with friendly listening and innovative ideas, which knew how to write thrash metal by giving us a small idea of ​​how the genre will evolve in the early 90s and after with the advent of the groove thrash style that the genre eventually adopted as a majority sound. I can only recommend it to curious people who want to discover how thrash metal evolved from the early 90s, a period when bands sought fans unfamiliar with metal and rock in general.