Another older Metal Mind reissue that I'm just now discovering, Astharoth's 1990 debut Gloomy Experiments is a lesser-known prog-thrash obscurity from this Polish outfit that I just recently discovered after reading about them on some "weird thrash" list someone had posted online. Being someone who can never get enough oddball thrash, I went looking for this album after seeing them described as an unusual Voivod-influenced outfit, and Experiments turned out to be a great discovery. This stuff is a highly confusional brand of progressive thrash metal, pretty wonky stuff actually. Right up my alley.

Originally active from 1988 to 1994, Astharoth were obviously drawing heavily upon both the otherworldly, spaced out dissonance of Voivod and the pummeling Teutonic thrash of bands like Kreator and Destruction with rampaging tempos and ferocious buzzsaw riffage, but which was then filtered through a very quirky, somewhat spaced-out vision that rendered this into something much more unique. The guitars have a lush, textural feel, the vocals are a youthful snarl that matches the energy of the music, with introspective lyrics, and the songs shift between that furious thrash metal, bursts of strange, almost jazzy guitar explosions (courtesy of guitarist Dorota Homme, who apparently didn't do anything else in her fairly brief career in underground metal), some groovier rocking moments, lots of icy dissonant chords, all wound together into a set of nine sprawling, elaborately designed songs that are delivered with an energetic, not too polished delivery. Intricate and brainy metal with lots of surrealistic atmosphere, but with an appealing "rawness" that contrasts nicely with the band's complex leanings. Can't say I've heard anything quite like this album, really. The experimental, ambitious aspects make this something that fans of classic prog-thrash a la Coroner, Watchtower, Voivod, D.B.C., Mekong Delta, Toxik and the like would want to check out, but Astharoth are much more prone to slipping out of their thorny thrash into sequences of chorus-drenched progginess that leads their album into unexpected directions. There's a very cool and unusual textural quality to the band's sound that sets 'em apart from similar-minded thrash outfits from this particular era.

While Astharoth's Gloomy Experiments aren't essential, if you're into progressive / weirdo thrash metal, their stuff is certainly interesting and well worth checking out if you're into the more "offbeat" fringes of late 80s/early 90s thrash metal. Especially the less-known edges of Eastern Bloc thrash. For this Metal Mind reissue, the original album is also paired up with an additional seven bonus tracks that were recorded after the band relocated to the San Francisco area in the US in the early 90s, and this stuff gets into even more ambitious Voivodian territory.

Re-mastered and comes in digipack packaging with booklet and liner notes, limited to machine numbered 2000 copies.