Reissues are one of my favourite ways to find out about lost and forgotten gems from decades ago. So I have here the 1988 released self-titled album by Swiss Thrashers APOCALYPSE. The album artwork really catches your eye and gives you an idea of what to expect here. "Apocalypse" was reissued by Divebomb Records earlier this year with the addition of a few demo songs from the band from their 1985 release; and it really promises to be a great release.

The album starts with "Digital Life", which has an 80s feel along with some modern day production. The style is clearly between Thrash and Heavy Metal and has lot of the DEMOLITION HAMMER, OVERKILL and MORTAL SIN style of Thrash to it. "Tale Of A Nightmare" has some excellent backing vocals with some really excellent sharp riffs as the band attempts to shoot at an anthem here. "Crash!" also has some really good chaotic and sharp riffs, and the riff madness goes so insane that it almost feels as if both of the guitarists are having some kind of "riff battle" with each other. At the end I think it is very cheeky, even though it lacks any variety or flavour to offer to the listener here.

For a song titled "Fuck Off And Die" the track is rather disappointing; even with the fine riffs and gang vocals. "The Night Before" is in my opinion, one of its kind; as the song has some very good tempo build-up in the intro, and what with the war and battle theme lyrics, you have the song of the album here.

After all this effort at making their songs sound unique and artistic, at some point the lads probably just said: "Fuck it, we will blast the shit out of the instruments even if they sound generic and repetitive"; and sadly the result is the title track "Apocalypse". "Back To The Fire" has some excellent Thrash riffs and solos, and honestly, even the drum work really stands out here.

"Dark Sword" has some insanely fast riffs just like many other songs on offer here, but sadly again lacks anything truly noteworthy in terms of variety and flavour. The band just seems to bank on pace the whole time; although some Thrash fans might actually dig it. "Cemetery" has a few ACCEPT-ish licks, but still sounds very similar to the album's previous songs with juicy but repetitive riffs.

Towards the end of the record you have 6 additional 'bonus' tracks; all of them being demo songs or versions of songs from the full-length album. First up we have "Back To The Fire", which as you would imagine is the same song as mentioned above but with a poorer production value, yet nevertheless solid. The poor production and the chaotic sound gets on your nerves much more with "I Don't Tell You Lies". "Demon's Eyes" is less disturbing, but again sounds generic and is a tad disappointing. The demo versions of "Fuck Off And Die" and "Dark Sword" are less impressive too. The last song here is "The Knight", which is actually impressive and has some really good clean and gang vocals backed by some interesting riffs.

The Reissue as a whole has both good parts and the not-so-good parts. Yet the repetitive riffs, the absence of variety, the lack of innovation and the poor production make this Reissue not compelling enough; and this is not a great record by modern day Thrash Metal standards to start with. But what it does manage to do, is give Thrash fans an opportunity to dig some new 80s Thrash to feed their nostalgia and may be get some appreciation in the process.