Death & Insanity

Hallows Eve were a thrash band from Atlanta that formed in 1983 and released their first album in 1985. This follow-up consolidates the achievements of the debut — it’s multifaceted and varied, shifting from downtuned, Anthrax-ish thrash to more trad/power metal sounds, often within the same song. The opening track blasts by in just 2:21, a punkish gallop over which vocalist Stacy Anderson yelps as though he’s struggling to keep up with the relentless riffage. He adopts a hardcore shout on “Suicide/D.I.E.,” which pairs a blindingly fast first section with a pummeling and much heavier second half — “D.I.E.” stands for “Death In Effect” — which chugs along for seven full minutes. The band’s greatest achievement, though, is the grinding, six-minute “Lethal Tendencies,” on which Anderson dips into a low, growling register as the band pretty much invents the swampy, midtempo death metal groove that Obituary would ride to underground-legend status just a few years later.