Enchanter -The Gates of Insanity CS (self-released, 1989): This tape opens with a creepy door creaking open and that’s the last chance for a breath that you’ll have for a few minutes. Engineered by the late, great Phil Bonnet, this is four songs of super tight, perfectly recorded Chicago thrash metal. The riffs are catchy, the vocals are mean and utilize tasteful bursts of falsetto, and THE BASS IS AUDIBLE (and really great).
I wrote about this tape for Soda Killers #13. That was the first time I listened to it and I haven’t been able to stop since. The first two songs especially are thrash metal at its peak efficiency, going for it with technical prowess, memorable parts, and song structures that reinforce it all. The second half of the tape is great too, ENCHANTER just meanders a little much into the slower METALLICA type stuff on those tracks for my taste. I can’t stress enough how crucial and overlooked this tape is though. I have no idea if ENCHANTER ended up doing anything else, but either way they’ve done the Midwest proud.
The Only Normal People 