After so many years without releasing anything full-length of fully official, it is about time for ANNIHILATIONMANCER. This Italian group, that began developing an extensive and utterly complex kind of Thrash since 1994, has finally released its debut album, "The Involution Philosophy", after a small promo two years prior. Progressive Thrash Metal always had its mutations and this is one of them. However, I think it would be wise to listen to this release more than once in order to capture its essence due to its strong constructiveness.

I think that one of the band's main problems is their ability to keep a certain flow. ANNIHILATIONMANCER is still not in the caliber of other Progressive Thrashers as ARTILLERY or HADES. This band's style has rather more references to the late DEATH progression of "Sound Of Perseverance" and the afterwards the CONTROL DENIED debut.

Right from the first listen I had no doubt that I am listening to pros. The trio proved its worth while sitting tight on the material on display. Masulli, vocals and guitar, shows the prowess of  extreme diversity on the chanting that has it shared attributes to the old Mustaine along with high technical playing abilities. His peers Coppola and Cannata show the same fine attributes as if they were Steve DiGiorgio and Richard Christy. Thus,it can be inferred that those guys have something to prove and they performed with excellence.

However, in comparison to DEATH and CONTROL DENIED, and with all of their experience throughout the years, I think they still have somewhat to learn how to create complex material that will have a certain flow. I believe that whereas crafting highly intelligent material there is a sort of risk. I think that one of the main challenges is to form, whenever a band chooses of course, a type of material that will be easily comprehensible and in the same time complex. On "The Involution Philosophy", that goal was more closer to being achieved than missed.

Some of the greatest results of the is debut were in the likes of several diverse tracks that caught my attention. The offering of the instrumental "Reflected In Her Life" proved that this band can go behind their definition as a Thrash Metal group and while adding an additional artistic view with a fine atmosphere. The self titled track, "The Involution Philosophy", is yet another great track with a wide range of feels, whether hard to the core Thrash or rather more softy touches. However, with the finesses of those two mentioned tracks, ANNIHILATIONMANCER's greatest effort was on "Corner Of Answers", the meeting of straightforward with bewildered progressiveness. Its angry chorus of has the best example of the late 80s Thrash kind. The rest of the material has its way to impress with variances of technical playing, yet, there are sections that felt as if those were slightly disconnected.

This album is recommended to all Metalheads, especially the ones that appreciate the progressive side of Thrash Metal on it variances. Even though ANNIHILATIONMANCER still have to learn how to more integrate their musical sections into one another in order to create a full scale hit machine, their first outcome is still great and with its old school solid production and style that will provide the strong mementos of fury.