Intelligent if dark thrash from this German band and their 12th album to date. Full on and in-you-face, there is a strong element in both sound and technical adeptness of Anthrax, with the aggression and roughness of Slayer and Testament. With lead guitarist Michael Hankel doubling up on occasional keyboards, there is a power metal element too.

"Imagination" opens with a building prog power intro before the guitars and drums come in. Imagine Anthrax's One World sung by a hobbit with terminal laryngitis. The guitar solos are incredible though.

"Alienation" is bowl movingly intense, in fact the whole album in pretty intense and no frills.

The vocals mix deep growls and hysterical screeches; I'm actually halfway through the album before I realise that singer Sabina Classen is actually female.

The lyrics may be dark, but cover ambivalent suicidal reflections, disturbances of memory, blackouts and amnesia. Intense indeed!

The CD, digipak and 2LP all have slightly different track listings but surely an album for thrash fans everywhere.

***½

Review by Joe Geesin

www.joegeesin.com