Genre: doom, thrash.
Year: 1987
Position in discography: debut album.
An unusual hybrid, thrash/hardcore/doom,
Journey Into Mystery is an appropriate title, given just how mysterious this combination of styles is for 1987. “Back From the Dead” gets you in the mood, laying the groundwork for the rest of the album with a slow riff that quickens instantaneously to thrash speed-level ownage. Singer Brian Lawrence’s hardcore-like shouts are interspersed between periods of long instrumental sections, and his emphatic, piercing shouts, which are at times, really high in the mix compared to everything else, are huge in adding depth to the prevailing sense of chaotic dispair the rest of the music is so good at creating.
“Bitterness And Hatred” and the opening track are the high-points for me. The former has a screeching-fast solo that sounds like nails on a chalkboard, and is just perfect.