Year of release: 1993
Label: La Caverna Records
Rating: 6,8 / 10
Young (founded in July 2018) Colombian label La Caverna Records recently sent me its first and second releases. If the first I almost immediately left for Blitz reviews, then the second one is somewhat more interesting. "Mental Turmoil" is the only album of the US Death Metal band THROMBUS, founded in 1991 and existed only a couple of years. At its time, it was released by the band on cassette tape limited to 100 copies only. The band members, despite the fact that many decided to continue their musical career, never showed up in any sensible formation, so the fact that the Colombian label managed to dig out this long-forgotten album somewhere is quite amazing. But he did it for good reason. "Mental Turmoil", undoubtedly, deserved a re-release like this one - on a CD, with a small print run of 400 copies. 24 minutes of material contain references to the main classics of those years - MASSACRE, DEICIDE, VITAL REMAINS, even SUFFOCATION. But the closest reference point is, in my opinion, MALEVOLENT CREATION of "Stillborn" and "Retribution" period. The change of pace, the manner of playing and the vocals are quite similar. At the same time, "Mental Turmoil" is not devoid of the drawbacks of the above-mentioned albums - in particular, the unconvincing sound and the lack of integrity of the musical idea. The record, made in three rounds at the studio of some guy named Michael Cooper, sounds absolutely standard for those years - better than modern plastic shit, but worse than Morissound. Not a bad result after all. I strongly recommend this album to the fans of the old Death Metal. Maybe it's not a masterpiece, but it has the spirit of a great era.