The Moshketeers - The Downward Spiral

This month we see the reissue of a gem from the past. OK, I admit upfront, I had previously heard of these guys back in the day when they were active (late 80's - early 90's), and under their former band name, Rapture, had seen reviews of their releases; I had just never acquired a copy of their music myself. Back about six years ago, I did some MP3 demo trading with some guys online, and acquired about ten discs loaded with hundreds of old demos. Among them were both Rapture demos, as well as this release, The Downward Spiral. But I never really got around to listening to this, and did I ever miss out. I am impressed with this disc, and this reissue has been cleaned up, remastered, and made to sound even more amazing than the copy I had on hand.

People would call this "old-school" thrash mixed with speed metal, along the lines of Anthrax, Testament, Exodus and the like. The vocal styling of Paul Scozzafava sound uncannily like Kurt Bachman of Believer fame at times, so that is a big plus in my opinion too. The band opened shows for such greats as Barren Cross, Testament, Sacred Warrior, and many other great bands of the day, and even scored a slot at Cornerstone (of which I have a bootleg video of the show).

Even with all of the exposure, and the ever growing fan base, surprisingly this band did not get signed and released by a major label. By the late 80's when these guys were tearing it up, bands like Deliverance, Vengeance Rising, Believer, Betrayal and so many others had already blown the doors open in the thrash genre, so the way was paved, but never was that path traveled by this three-piece mosh-monster of a band from New Mexico. I understand they were poised to join the ranks of the signed, but it just never happened sadly.

Musically they have such a full sound for a three-piece, and the chops just keep coming. Add to that an occasional tongue-in-cheek lyrical approach (as if the band name itself didn't give away their funny side already) and they are very reminiscent of the humorous side of what bands like Anthrax were also doing at the time. Even with that though, the band is very upfront and un-apologetically evangelistic lyrically.

From start to finish, The Downward Spiral keeps the mosh on, with mid-tempo speed (by today's standards) and crunch galore. I am very sorry I missed out on being able to crank this disc for the past twenty years since its original release, but am very glad it finally has seen the light of day, remastered, cleaned up, and put on the market in a bigger way.

This reissue includes all 11 tracks from the original 1990 release:

1. Sin
2. The Downward Spiral
3. Locked in Chains
4. Ye!
5. The Myth
6. Self Extinction
7. Epicurus
8. Posers of Deceit
9. Grease the Duck
10. Nightmares
11. This Life of Emptiness

along with the bonus tracks, which come from a 1997 session where Paul got some guys together under the band moniker and was working on releasing a new full release that never came to fruition:

12. Return
13. Take My Life
14. Death or Life
15. Thelo Agnoia

and the last track is listed as being from a pre-Downward Spiral release:

16: Ye! (demo)

For those few of you like me who pre-ordered and took advantage of the special offer, you would have also received the bonus second disc, which contains the 7-track "Vacation From Hell" from the band when they were called Rapture. Quite a nice bonus indeed to have a remastered version of this cool release which finds the boys tearing it up in a speed-metal frenzy on the tracks:

1. America
2. Suicide
3. Murder for a prophet
4. Locked in Chains
5. Forgotten Faces
6. The Balad
7. Deception

If only they were willing/able to have included their first 6-track demo on here, that would have pretty much made this a complete package of all the recorded material that had been publicly released. A minor desire from my completest mind-set that in no way effects this great package as it stands.

Bravo! BRAVO! to Roxx Records and Divine Metal Distro for bring us this somewhat "lost" gem!