1993.

This year was a hard one for Thrash Metal acts, because the commercial praise of the second half of the 80's was gone, and many giants of the genre were trying to make a living as they could. And as Death Metal took the underground scene by assault, only names as METALLICA (that was touring for promoting "Metallica", and only would release a new album after 1995), MEGADETH (that earned success with "Countdown to Extinction" and would grow even more with "Youthanasia") and PANTERA (the success of "Vulgar Display of Power" was amazing). And Europe became the oasis for many Metal acts on those days. Maybe this is the reason that made INVOCATOR chose to release their second album, "Weave the Apocalypse", back then. And it's being reissued today with some bonuses.

The band had two changes on the line-up after their "Excursion Demise": Jakob Schultz and Jesper M. Jensen left, and Perle Hansen and Per Jakobsen entered. But the band's music had changed as well: from a melodic and technical approach from the early album to a form of Thrash Metal based on guitar riffing and filled with many influences from Groove Thrash Metal (some touches of PANTERA and BIOHAZARD are clear), even in the vocals. Obviously, the band's personality didn't change, but evolved, but is still full of energy and catchy parts.

The sonority is better defined than on their debut, with Griffy taking care of the original production and sound engineering, leaving the mixing to Carsten Neumann and Jacob Hansen. And it's excellent, defined and everything can be understood without problems, and the choice of the instrumental tunes was a wise one. And the remastering done by Jacob really turns things better. And the artwork is a new scan of the original cover, done again by the hands of the master Dan Seagrave. Again, it's a double CD pack that is offered to the fans.

CD 1 is the album itself, with "Through the Nether to the Sun" (excellent bass guitar and drums parts), "From my Skull it Rains" (the massive riffing of this one is amazing, and some technical parts fit on the song), "Condition Critical" (this is a pure Groove Thrash Metal song, with massive musical arrangements and fine vocals), "Doomed to Be" (the slower parts are really excellent), "Land of Misery" and "Weave the Apocalypse" (and intense and massive song, with sets of arrangements that are really catchy).

On CD 2, we have "Live Odense 1994", where one can check the live shots for "Excursion Demise", "Land of Misery", "From my Skull it Rains", "Condition Critical", "Occurrence Concealed", "The Afterbirth", "Breed of Sin", "Lost at Birth", "Desert Sands", "Doomed to Be", "Weave the Apocalypse", and "Mr. Albert Fish" (a version of the band for this old MACABRE song), and it's good to check their fire power alive (and the versions for their songs of "Excursion Demise"); three songs for the "Promo 1992" demo, "Doomed to Be", "Land of Misery" and "Lost at Birth", in rawer versions; and "Covers 1994", where one can find their personal visions on "The Eternal War" (a classic song from another Danish band, the legendary ARTILLERY), and "The Promise of Agony" (from the North American legends of DARK ANGEL, but hear it to the end).

So it can be said that INVOCATOR was struggling to survive on those days with "Weave the Apocalypse", and did a very good work. And it still sounds as alive as in those days.