Toxik

Green Line


Lunar Strain
1987 Roadrunner Records 

World Circus

  1. Heart Attack
  2. Social Overload 
  3. Pain and Misery 
  4. Voices 
  5. Door to Hell
  6. World Circus 
  7. 47 Seconds of Sanity/Count Your Blessings 
  8. False Prophets 
  9. Haunted Earth 
  10. Victims

Line-Up

Mike Sanders - Vocals 
Josh Christian - Guitar 
Brian Bonini - Bass 
Tad Leger - Drums 
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Evan's View
 
Toxik were one of the many bands signed in the late eighties that played really killer technical thrash. Of course, both these albums were delete bin specials as soon as Roadrunner discovered death metal, but that's another story. Both albums are honed to a surgical edge, killer riffs and those classic air raid siren vocals, you gotta love it. One major difference here though, Toxik wrote really catchty tunes, and on all musical fronts it's apparently obvious that these guys practiced, a lot... So with all this going for it, it's a no brainer that this is one of the albums to pull out when memory lane beckons. Hell, it's even worth seeking out if you haven't heard it in a while. Socially conscious lyrics (from what I can decipher) and did I mention some killer axe and guitar work? What, you're still reading this? Go listen to the album!

8 out of 10

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Subterranean
1989 Roadrunner Records 

Think This

  1. Think This
  2. Greed
  3. Spontaneous
  4. There Stood the Fence
  5. Black and White
  6. Technical Arrogance
  7. Burn Jim/In God
  8. Machine Dream
  9. Out on the Tiles
  10. Shotgun Logic
  11. Time after Time
  12. Think That 

Line-Up

Charles Sabin - Vocals 
Josh Christian - Guitar 
Brian Bonini - Bass 
John Donnelly- Guitar  
Tad Leger - Drums 
Green Line
Evan's View
 

Back again after a short hiatus, now sporting a second guitarist and a new, somewhat tamer, vocalist. Think This has all the facets of World Circus, maybe being a little more restrained and focused. As I mentioned, Charles Sabine doesn't stay in the wail zone as much as Mike Sanders did on WC, but he does go there on occasion. In thinking about it, parts of World Circus are pretty raw (hence the term thrash) but I liked that, and in comparing the two, World Circus might win my heart for that very edge to the album. There's a more advanced sense of dynamics going on here as wellI don't know though, for as good as the playing was on WC, here it's even better, Tad Leger's killer feet really drawing my attention. Songwise, Toxik once again prove their worth as writers, but Think This almost feels a bit too long now, and a thrash cover of Zeppelin's Out on the Tiles doesn't exactly help things. It's not bad, but not that great either. Again though, this is one of the thrash classics, an album worth hearing again and again, even if the chorus to Spontaneous repeats about 30 times too many.

7 out of 10

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All text copyright 2001 Evan Howell