format: LP
year: 1991
country: UK
label: Cyclone Records
#: CYCLONE 1
info: innersleeve w/ lyrics + merch insert
style: Thrash Metal
Side A:
Side B:
Obscure UK Thrash - it could go all sorts of wrong. Dull & generic like Re-Animator or Acid Reign, puerile and dumb like Lawnmower Deth or Metal Duck, sloppy and outright bad like Virus or Anihilated ...or just maybe, really neat & awsum like Sabbat, Deathwish or Snyper! Believe it or not, but this time we got lucky coz ARBITRATER is a lot closer to the last cathegory. Not as in "as great as..", but you gotta wonder why we haven't heard more about these Warwick lads?
Here's why:
Shortly after being formed by all ex-Varukers members in the mid 80's (those that didn't form Sacrilege?), all but the singer budded off and instead became Metal Messiah. The stilted Arbitrater slowly repopulated and continued with the odd demo-release or 3 before finally producing this their very own private debut in 1991. Not an ideal year to unleash a straight-up traditional Speed/Thrash platter to the European underground I'm afraid, as everyone and their doG's head was turned towards more deathlike material. It's a real shame because this album is full of tight, classy, well produced (unlike their Metal Messiah buddys) and fast Thrash with hardly any contrieved, americanized mosh-parts at all - how rare! Also, the vocals have improved since the demo- and "A Taste Of Armageddon"-comptrack days.
Apart from the chugging bore "Graveyard Of Fools" I can't really find a single tune to complain about, as most of them are good-to-great in their own way. There's even some mild Sabbat-vibes in tracks like "Allegiance" and "Evil Emperor"(!), though obviously without the ye olde occulte magick vibes. My personal faves would be the 2 closing numbers: The pounding Metal Church-flavoured "Time For Destiny" and the catchy "Deadly Assassin", sounding like a particularly successful marriage of Overkill and Flotsam And Jetsam.
The next chapter in the history of the band does have some collector-hype attached to it, as their 2nd album from 1993 is a notoriously expensive CD-only rarity, on a whole other level than this already scarce debut. Luckily there's no need for normal, non-die-hard-CD-collector folks to put any major cash or effort into hunting this one down since it's a terribly dreary, unoriginal and 2nd-rate Bay-Area pastiche - pretty much a textbook example of The Disappointing Follow-up.