SCREAMS AND WHISPERS

Breaking up the brotherhood

Anacrusis released their fourth and final album in 1993, just 5 years after their debut. "Screams and whispers" contains predominantly new material written for the album, with the odd track left over and developed from "Manic impressions" included. The band themselves feel that this is their most sophisticated release, even including keyboards on a few tracks to create a more orchestral feel.

The cracks which would lead to the demise of Anacrusis began to surface during recording of this album. This difficulties were not really related to the music at all though, but to the band's lack of commercial success. As a result, while drummer Chad Smith was heavily involved in the development of the songs for the album, he does not actually play on it at all, his drum stool being taken over by Paul Miles. While things went well with Miles initially, he never moved on from being the new boy, causing further unrest within the band.

Right from the opening "Sound the alarm", it is clear that the sound and style of the band has indeed been refined. The rough vocals are still there, together with the dominant guitar work, but the atmosphere is often more mainstream than on previous albums, with a greater focus on melody.

The song "Release" appears twice on the album, in original and remix forms, reflecting its potential for single release. It is primarily the melodic, chiming guitar riff which distinguishes the song, the vocals (on the verses at least) being relatively understated. Grateful mixes the heavy riffing on which the band base their sound with quasi-symphonic dramatics. On the other hand, some tracks, such as "Division" and "Tools of separation" suggest that the band has made virtually no progress at all since their first album, apart from in terms of the recording quality. Such songs will appeal to those who seek only the thrash element of Thrash metal, but for me they are easily forgotten.

Many of the lyrics on the album appear to indicate that the band members knew this was potentially their last album together, indeed the final verse of the final song Brotherhood? seems to sum things up well: "We're weaned on empathy, To satisfy our doubt While attempts at unity have scattered us about Should we invent a common bond through means misunderstood? Or are we simply widening the gaps? Should we force a brotherhood?"

"Brotherhood" is quite different to the rest of the album, and indeed to what has gone before. An acoustic intro quickly gives way to something more powerful, but the symphonic keyboards and complex arrangement add up to something much more substantial, and indeed satisfying.

In all, an album which is not as advanced from its predecessors as the band had clearly wished for. That said, there are distinct signs here that Anacrusis could have gone on to find a unique identity while developing their adopted style into something more commercially successful.

"Screams and Whispers" is the fourth full-length studio album by US, Missouri based thrash/progressive metal act Anacrusis. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in May 1993. It´s the successor to "Manic Impressions" from May 1991. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as Chad Smith has been replaced by Paul Miles. Promotional videos were made for the tracks "Sound the Alarm" and "Release". "Screams and Whispers" ended up being Anacrusis last album in their original run as they disbanded shortly after the album was released.

Stylistically they´ve now made a complete tranformation from their raw and aggressive thrash metal roots towards a technically well played and progressive metal sound. The raw snarling thrash metal vocals and high pitched piercing screams are almost gone from the music (they still appear on occasion), and lead vocalist/guitarist Kenn Nardi predominantly sings clean vocals ranging from semi-raw singing to mellow atmospheric cleans. I´m often reminded of a more metalized and progressive version of Killing Joke (and artists like Alchemist and mid-90s Morgoth, but that was later and they were both also greatly influenced by Killing Joke, so maybe they don´t count). Both when it comes to the vocals but also the general feeling and atmosphere of the music. Anacrusis aren´t easy to pin down like that though, and there are a lot of other influences heard and Killing Joke is just one of them.

The music features both heavy thrashy parts, although that part of Anacrusis music has decreased greatly since "Manic Impressions", but more often heavy riffs and atmospheric clean guitars. In that respect Anacrusis did follow the times as many other contemporary thrash metal acts also released less thrashy albums. Artists like Coroner, Testament, Overkill, and Metallica in particular turned away from thrash metal (some for longer than others). Anacrusis have elements of the heavy alternative influence which some of the other mentioned artists were also toying with at the time, but of course Anacrusis were a much more progressive and unconventional sounding act. Which is probably why they never rose to anything but cult status. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Upon its arrival on my favourite radio program in 1993, Screams and Whispers made quite an impression. Most of the songs are very convincing and best of all, it's free. You can download it at quick speeds from their home site for nothing. Chances are you might also find it cheap second-hand. This eclectic gang of thrashers didn't find themselves an audience in the speed metal dominated scene of their times, which is a bit of a shame.

Anacrusis plays a blend of industrial metal, progressive metal and thrash with some gothic overtones. A mix of Ministry, Metallica, Voivod and Killing Joke if you want to put band names on it. The vocals are mainly hoarse bellows similar to the great Jazz Coleman on Killing Joke's 90's albums, for some reason Kenn Nardi also does occasional extreme raspy screeches. Due to the Jazz Coleman vocals, the steady pace of the music and some psychedelic elements, they also remind me a lot of the more recent band Alchemist, one of my favourite recent metal flavours. Recommended songs to check out are the 3 first standout tracks. Also the weird Division is interesting. The band also sits close to Prong here. 3.5 stars.