UMUR
"Manic Impressions" is the third full-length studio album by US, Missouri based thrash metal act Anacrusis. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in May 1991. It´s the successor to "Realm" from February 1990. There´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as drummer Mike Owen has been replaced by Chad Smith. Being signed to Metal Blade Records finally meant some stability for Anacrusis on the label front, and Metal Blade Records even purchased the rights to the band´s first two albums and reissued them. Two promotional videos where shot for the tracks "I Love the World" (cover of New Model Army) and "Something Real", suggesting that Metal Blade Records genuinely believed in Anacrusis.
Stylistically "Manic Impressions" continues the development which Anacrusis started on "Reason", moving from their traditional thrash/speed metal roots towards a more technical and progressive thrash metal style. Featuring a more well balanced and professional sounding production "Manic Impressions" is a sharper and more detailed version of the style initiated on "Reason" with a few new added progressive songwriting ideas. Lead vocalist/guitarist Kenn Nardi switches between raw snarling thrash metal vocals, spoken word parts, and atmospheric clean vocal parts. The latter sometimes remind me of 80s UK pop/rock/electronic music act vocals but also 80s shoegaze vocals. He is definitely not a power/progressive metal vocalist like you´re used to hearing them (high pitched and theatrical in delivery). He is not the most skilled or distinct sounding clean vocalist, but there´s still something compelling about his clean vocals that I can´t quite put my finger on, but they generally work with the instrumental part of the music.
The songwriting is unconventional, adventurous, and at time even daring. Anacrusis obviously have an ambitious vision of what their music should sound like, and they follow that vision for better or worse. It´s as non-mainstream as you can get. In that respect they remind me of Voivod, although they are relatively far from the Canadians in terms of the actual music. But the overall vision isn´t that different. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.