DisAgreement Online

Who remembers I.N.C. or Indestructible Noise Command? Honestly now? Sometimes they went under their full name, sometimes under their abbreviation. I got to know them in 1988 with their second longplayer The Visitor, a slab of bone-dry thrash metal that lived off the raw sandpaper vocals of Dennis Gergely and the unforgettable melodies they managed to weave unexpectedly into their music. To this day, it’s still one of my favourite all-time metal albums, even if the band never received the fame it deserved. Two years later, the band went on hiatus, because there was just not enough support from record labels, even though they had an impressive fanbase.

Twenty years later, the vocalist and the two guitarists from the original line-up got back together with a new rhythm section, but their first comeback longplayer was criticised for being not thrash enough, with the band having opted for a more groove metal oriented approach. Reviews for the follow-up in 2014 were already better, but it’s their third album since their second coming that will put them back on the metal map.

I have to admit that I lost track of I.N.C. after The Visitor, and was therefore quite eager to listen to Terrible Things. My first impression may have been slight disappointment, but then I told myself that it’s been more than thirty years since their early days. The musicians have grown, the technology has matured, and that’s why Terrible Things has a much fatter sound than their early two albums. So yes, there are still some groove metal elements left, but the quintet incorporates them seamlessly into their dynamic thrash metal in order to create something which is the logical development of Indestructible Noise Command from the last to the current millennium.

The first half of Terrible Things is some of the greatest modern thrash metal I have heard in a very long time. Take for instance the ultra-brutal opener Fist Go Rek, which is literally a sonic fist in your face. Gergely still has this unique voice that is spewing bile in the face of the listener. The pace is fast, the guitar riffs are the classic stuff from the late Eighties, so basically, the perfect opener. It’s also the only song below four minutes, with the remaining tracks mostly between four and five minutes long. Gone are the sometimes self-indulgent seven or eight minute long tracks of the past.

The following Identifier starts like a rather generic groove metal track, but as soon as the vicious vocals join in, the fun starts. A mid-tempo bridge leads into an amazing chorus with strange lyrics about crash landing on Venus. I wonder what this song is about. Declaration offers more classic thrash metal fare, and it’s once again the superb melodic chorus that makes sure you won’t forget this song anytime soon. The title track continues in that vein, showing that no matter how many thrash metal bands you know, none sound exactly like I.N.C. The first half ends with Pledge Of Legions, and if the entire album were like that, this would easily have been a maximum grade. The second half is also very good, but it’s obvious that I.N.C. put their best material on the first half.

At first I was disappointed that I only now learned of the band’s comeback, but I am also glad because Terrible Things is so much better than its two predecessors. If you liked The Visitor, and are not entirely stuck in the past, you will also love Terrible Things. And those of you who never heard of the band before, now is your chance to make yourself familiar with one of the most underrated metal bands of all time.