format: LP
year: 1987
country: Canada
label: Banzai Records
#: BRC 2003
info: Innesleeve w/ lyrics.
style: Thrash Metal
Side A:
Side B:
The first of Canadians AGGRESSION's two claims to fame that we're gonna address here is that they usually make the Top-10 list of 'classic Canadian Thrash' when the subject comes up ...but more seldom the Top-5 dito. Still, a 6th-to-7th-or-so placement on such a list is a bloody fine one in my book and "The Full Treatment" is a prime example of an '86-87 hard core underground Thrash Metal LP and a worthy inclusion in the collections of any fan of said genre.
Concering this 1987 debut we really need to start at the end because "The Final Massacre" is perhaps one of the greatest, most destructive mid-pace deathrashers ever recorded. It's tempting to compare it to their countrymen Infernal Mäjesty's seminal "Night Of The Living Dead" opus, but it isn't quite as epic and instead presents a more grinding, almost crusty attack more similar to Bolt Thrower or Sacrilege UK. Your helpless flesh is hit by wave after wave of BRUTAL, merciless riffs upon riffs and you never want it to stop. After 8+ minutes this song still feels too short.
In no way are they to be considered a one-hit-wonder though.
Their sound is consistenly raw and cutting-edge and there's no coincidence that the band was featured on 2 separate New Renaissance comps prior to this album's release. Tracks like "Forsaken Survival", "Frozen Aggressor" and the monstrous "Rotten By Torture" are all smeared in the same shade of filth as Blood Feast, Holocross, Anvil Bitch etc, and when they ultraspeed they ultraspeed really well. "Green Goblin" could be a buried & forgotten Repulsion-track and so could "By The Reaping Hook", though the latter is expanded into higher dimensions of sweet crossover violence and probably the 2nd finest track of the album. Yes, there are certainly some HC/crossover vibes present in Aggression's sound, but only on selective tracks and very delicately utilized, like in "Dripping Flesh" for instance, which perfectly melds 'Reign In Blood' riff-aesthetics with hysteric MDC vocal lines. "One For The Woods" is borderline zany, but in the very best of Wehrmacht/Voivod/Dead Kennedys-ways and "Demolition" is even more MDC-goes-Thrash because they had a hunch we needed it. Thank you!
Their second claim to fame would be that they were the only original signing of Canadian cult label Banzai Records. Curiously the album was never licensed (nor "licensed") anywhere else in the world at the time, and as such it has become a fairly rare item today, though certainly not in the unobtainable league. Music + gnarly witch cover / availability = worthy prey.