Crossover Thrash in my opinion, has become stale since last few years with the last big names of MUNICIPAL WASTE, DRI and others barely managing to keep the fans interested. But Technical Thrash has been able to evolve over the years even though majority of old metalheads refuse to accept this fact. But here we got New York's legendary underground Hardcore-Crossover Thrashers CRO-MAGS with the Reissue of their 4^th full length "Near Death Experience", originally released way back in 1993.

I became aware of CRO-MAGS a year ago through Wikipedia (yes, that's weird), but didn't really dig their music for some reason. So when I was asked to review this album, I was really excited, as I finally wanted to explore this underground behemoth. What most amazed about this album was that the album starts in a predictable manner of really fast paced Punkish Thrash songs, but gets into a rhythmic sound in the latter half, which actually is more impressive than the former part. Titles like "Say Goodbye to Mother Earth" and "War on the Streets" should give an idea of what the lads are working on lyrically here. The vocals are the regular thick screaming Thrash Metal vocal style that just works fine for the band. "Kali-Yuga" is again fast paced, but has some really innovative and sick guitar work ever done in this sub-genre of Metal. The album gets into anthemic mode with ""War on the Streets" as the backing vocals take center stage amid the punkish riffs. "Death in the Womb" is more faster and chaotic song and personally not as impressive as one's before it. For some weird reason "Time I Am" reminded me of SKID ROW, nevertheless it's a really cool punk driven song. The album does get better with time, not just song by song, but even as a whole, especially the title track "Near Death Experiences" really nails it with it raw sound. The hair lifting riffs hold your nerves with the album ending "The Other Side of Madness", as the band strikes a chord between melody and heaviness with this epic song.

Although I do find a song or two unimpressive, that's where the buck stops, as this album is a pure gem for Crossover or Thrash fans. You don't even need to be a real Punk fan to dig this. For anybody trying to understand '80s American hardcore movement, this is a pilgrimage trip they have to travel.<