THROMBUS – Mental Turmoil Reissue
La Caverna Records
I'm thinking many people out there in the land of metal fandom will not immediately recognize this band. On the other hand if you're a collector of everything death metal or a US doom fan then you might know about this. THROMBUS were a four piece US death metal act who hailed from Oregon back in the early 1990s. The doom connection comes from one of the band members here, Isamu Sato, who played on three (and in my opinion best) of YOB's early albums. Now there's second US doom connection here as well in that another guy, Mike Brown, played with the band ALDEBARAN who I happen to be a fan of as well.
Now while THROMBUS only lasted a handful of years in the early 90s. This their sole release has garnered a somewhat legendary status by some people who've made it out to be a collectible item. Mental Turmoil was originally released by the band as a cassette. (see below)
The band put out around a 100 copies and afterwards, in the latter 90s, it was passed on in second or third hand copies via tape trading. During the 2000s or when the internet explosion came about it became available on obscure metal download sites. Don't lie, you know exactly what I'm talking about. A few years back I was reading something that mentioned the band as legendary and I had thought this had been reissued on CD by the way the author was writing about it. Obviously I was mistaken because here it is now.
Musically in a reality sense THROMBUS on Mental Turmoil are not legendary. It's basic 90's era US death metal in a vein similar to many acts at the time. Maybe more similar to Midwest DM then Floridian. I know if I picked it apart then I could name drop. Now as far as quality yes it's good. The band followed the 90's era basics of decent chunky rhythms, dirty guitar tones, some sharp solos and of course gruff vocals pushed to the front. All six cuts are decent but not in any way groundbreaking.
Now that's not to say this is not worthwhile. It's always cool to see something from the past which was unavailable to fans getting a second shot. Also having it available on CD makes it better for people with thin wallets. I don't begrudge people selling things on Ebay and making a profit from it. I just hate ripoff artists. Nuff Said.
https://lacavernarecs.bandcamp.com/
https://lacavernarecs.bandcamp.com/album/mental-turmoil
