If at all there is one thing I have learnt in my short experience of my Metal genre is that, no matter how deep you dig a single sub-genre of Metal, there will always be some albums that you will miss, and some of them worth listening to even after decades, just like the more celebrated ones. Here we have GRINDER's 1988 debut full length album "Dawn For The Living". Released at a time when Teutonic and Bay Area Thrash was going global and near mainstream, sadly GRINGER failed to gain the attention some of their peers got.

As I listen to the album multiple times, its gets more clear that DIVEBOMB RECORDS has done a huge favour to all Thrash fans globally by Re-releasing this classic. In addition to the original 9 songs, this Re-release has 4 additional bonus songs which are all live songs. The album starts with an amazing fast song in "Obsession". What's really attractive other than the bullet like riffs are the simple Thrash / Heavy Metal vocals by Adrian Hahn. "Dawn For The Living" starts of in a slow tempo building style as both the guitars and the drums blast some hair raising chores, before moving into a faster paced sound. It's amazing how the band is able to shift to and forth between the rhythmic sections and the faster chaotic parts with ease, which I consider is real talent of GRINDER.

"Sinners Exile" is comparatively a pale song though it does have some cool anthemic backing vocals and sexy riffs. With "Magician", Adrian Hahn moves towards more Power Metal style vocals with the song sounding slightly monotonous with its riffs. The rest of the album with the original songs only can be described as "a train rushing through a tunnel", the riffs here remind me of RAZOR for all the good reasons. Songs like "Traitor" give me a feeling that GRINDER played a crucial role in giving shape to what Speed Metal is today. The last of the studio songs "F.O.A.D" is more of a mid tempo Punk song, which the band has tried to do something way different that anything so far, but is more of a disappointment considering the quality of the music so far.

With the bonus part: the live versions of "Traitor" and "Dawn For The Living" are really well produced and they makes you really fall in love with the band due to the sheer raw mayhem created in your ears. Like any good live songs they are improvised and underline the fact how talented these bunch of musicians were. Even an average song like "F.O.A.D." is really played live aesthetically and makes you fall in love with the music. So basically check this great album out, because this is one of those hundreds' of bands which are actually worth listening to even after decades. Its music like this that envy me of everything that was 80s - the music, the attitude, the rawness. You're just in a different world. Seasoned Thrashers should listen to this religiously!