I’m always uncomfortable reviewing re-released ‘lost classics’, especially when I never heard it first time around. I had to dig up this Quebec thrash band’s biography to find out who they were, but apparently this lot was hot shit in the Canadian Metal scene but due to bad label distribution, this 1986 album never truly saw the light of day. So Great White North has mastered it and re-released it, but to be honest I’m not sure that anyone other than total old school obscure thrash aficionados and the former now virtually unknown band members really will care.

During the ‘thrash’ era, I was generally a big four guy (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax) guy with a few incursions into Dark Angel, Testament, Nuclear Assault, Sacred Reich and the home grown British thrash scene (Sabbat, Ignorance, Xentrix, Toranaga), but as far as relatively unknown and obscure bands, I couldn’t begin to pretend I know much about them, so I wont even try to say how this stands up to anything of its era or tell you it’s a long lost classic that’s finally seen the light of day.

What I can tell you is that this is typical mid eighties rough and ready thrash metal , so that’s to say it’s got a little punk rebelliousness, some NWHBHM in it and a good amount of speedy but raw riffs and gruff monotone vocals delivering typically mid 80 thrash titles like ‘Frozen Aggressor’, ‘Metal Slaughter’, ‘Torment or Death’, etc. For 1986, there is quite a bit of speed that borders on early Slayer, but when placed next to genre defining albums like Hell Awaits et al, it lacks true killer punch, variety and atmosphere and I can see why this band never quite had an impact (label issues aside).

That being said, I can see this having some value for total old school thrash worshippers looking to dust off some old school noise that maybe didn’t get a chance when thrash was peaking. If Forgotten Skeleton has been re-mastered, I can’t imagine how bad it sounded back in 1986 even considering the general quality back then, as even this restored version is pretty grainy and flat, but I guess this album is generally meant for nostalgia buffs, not production whores like myself.

I timidly recommend this for thrash lovers who missed this album the first time around or simply never heard of it and want an old school thrash album from a slightly different origin so they break out their white high-tops thrash their mullets to.

[Visit the band's website]

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