As an English fella once said, "You gotta get back to where you once belonged." How many metalheads among us take that regularly to heart when we spin the old stand-by classics from the 80's and 90's? We all love to reminisce about the old days but the real grumblers lament the sheer quality of the metal back then, not like what we get today, no sir.

For them, it seems, the record companies invented the re-issue. Old tracks get a digital rinsing, and they'll even spackle on some previously unreleased tunes if they're feeling good about it. Selfmade God Records dug deep and found a worthy candidate in 1992's "Invitation From Host Of Wrath" by SPARAGMOS.

The part-English part-Polsku album is above the banal of post-Bloc metal pablum that erupted when the Curtain fell. By the year it was released, the scene in East Europe had pretty much gotten on its feet, and Poland had its standard bearer in VADER, but SPARAGMOS entered a dark horse in the race. Released only on cassette in the era of the compact disc, the album never quite got the exposure it needed.

The album starts off calm, but you can feel the metal anger rising, and a bit of Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" caps the opening track before you're treated to a string of thrashing and bashing that harks on the wailing guitars of SLAYER. A carousel of beats and rhythms does make it a bit jarring at times. For example, the album's title track feels like a great lumbering cave troll in battle; there are so many skulls to smash that it simply can't choose. "Cage" even manages to introduce a taste of contemporary Grunge into the mix.

The band finds their own voice with "Screams Of Pompey," which either pays tribute or makes a mock of the doomed city; the international language of endearment is not present here. "Doors Of Perception" bridges the original album's back end; three high quality metal tracks culminating with "Dick Duck," a song that must have been as fun to make as it is to hear. It's not a comedy song, rather one gets the impression of absurdity more akin to PRIMUS or INFECTIOUS GROOVES, as it falls short of I'm-The-Man style laughs.

The new end of the album comes in the form of the 1990 demo, "Mortal Organic Remains..." These tracks tell mostly the same multifaceted tales as the rest. "Getting Into Death" sounds as good as any metal tune written in the last decade, and is the most mosh-worthy of this release. The demo's eponymous "Mortal Organic Remains" closes the show with barebones Thrash, and that's unsurprising as there simply is no meat left; it's all been cooked and eaten, and by the end it's all marrow.

All in all, the re-release of "Invitation From Host Of Wrath" holds up as a decent deep cut, an obscure example from a glorious time to be a metalhead. That said, what you're getting here is standard fare as far as Thrash goes. It wasn't groundbreaking thirty years ago, and it won't break ground today, but it can still rattle your floor with the best of them.