Band:	Anacrusis
Album:	Reason
Style:	Progressive thrash metal
Release date:	1990
Guest review by:	Markku

01. Stop Me
02. Terrified
03. Not Forgotten
04. Wrong
05. Silent Crime
06. Misshapen Intent
07. Afraid To Feel
08. Child Inside
09. Vital
10. Quick To Doubt
11. Killing My Mind [European bonus]
12. Injustice [European bonus]

Reason is probably the most overlooked release from Anacrusis' discography, thrashers tend to prefer the more straightforward Suffering Hour which is their debut album and admireres of more complex and prog oriented music prefer Screams and Whispers, their last album and Manic Impressions which preceded it. This doesnt mean that Reason is a lesser album, on the contrary, if a person likes both thrash metal and progressive thrash metal s/he'll probably find something to enjoy in all of Anacrusis' albums.

What makes this album quite interestning is how a whole layer of emotions are added, which is quite rare when it comes to thrash. While your average thrash metal album is usually all about aggression (with some exceptions) this album covers a whole sceptre of moods and emotions: melancholy and desperation (Stop Me and Silent Crime) accompanied by a pretty gloomy atmposphere, then again you can hear an youthful outcry full of hope and even that frenzied aggression inherent to a proper thrash song. A comparison with doom metal bands in some songs wouldn't be too far off. Don't get me wrong now, it's still an old school thrash metal album but it has some qualities which aren't quite usual to a thrash metal band. Kenn Nardi's vocals have a huge part in conveying the different feelings and moods, his voice goes from soft lower clean vocals to very high screams (and he can keep these screams going for a quite a long period of time, check the the first five seconds of the song called Killing My Mind..... if you dare).

The lyrics correspond well with the moods and emotions displayed on the album, yep, nothing about nuclear wars or thrashers taking over the world here, sorry. The main themes are personal struggles and corrupt people and society in general. Everyone, of course, is free to interpet the words in a different way.

Back to the issue of this album being a tad different and ungeneric. Besides the atmosphere of the songs there is one more important aspect to be taken into consideration. The song structures are more sophisticated than on Suffering Hour and on an average thrash album, there are more changes in pace, more interesting fills and sudden variations in the riffing. For example a furious riff accompanied with the cutting screams can suddenly break down to smooth and slow music with low and mellower vocals . When analysing Anacrusis' discography in retrospect it's quite easy to see that this album is the first step in the way from pure thrash metal to progressive thrash metal.

To sum it up; this album is thrash metal with qualities rare to a thrash metal release making this album worth a listen. If Id be obliged to define the genre of this album I would just call it melodic thrash metal.