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One of the San Francisco Bay Area’s second wave thrash sensations, IMAGIKA formed in 1993 in the suburb city of San Carlos by guitarist Steve Rice and vocalist David Michael and would stick it out until 2011 then again reformed in 2018. The band was equally influenced by the Bay Area thrash metal scene that took the 80s by storm as it was with the traditional heavy metal sounds of classic Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Mercyful Fate. After recruiting Henry Moreno (drums) and Mike Dargis (bass), the band released seven albums beginning with this 1995 eponymously titled debut.
The IMAGIKA debut showcases a band that was somewhere between the world of Bay Area thrash metal bands like Exodus, Testament and Death Angel as well as US power metal bands like Metal Church, Warlord and Iced Earth. The guitar grooves also remind a bit of Pantera, Prong or Fear Factory. The vocals also exist somewhere in the middle of rough thrash screams and wailing heavy metal. During the time of this debut the band promoted itself as a resurrectionist of the classic Bay Area thrash scene but unfortunately this was occurring just as the thrash metal genre was in decline as the alternative 90s was fully underway as well as extreme metal moving on into the world of death and black metal.
Despite it all IMAGIKA continued on through sheer determination to revive the Bay Area thrash metal scene and persevered until it found more positive reactions towards its 1998 album “Worship” which generated a tour in Europe with Grave Digger and Iron Savior. At this early stage though it sounds like the band was just getting its feet wet in the thrash meets US power metal scene and hadn’t quite mustered up the mojo to craft memorable songs thus leaving this debut album sounding more like a demo of sorts. The album originally featured nine tracks that added up to 37 minutes but newer releases added two extra tracks that resulted in ten extra minutes playing time.
IMAGIKA despite all its ambition and hard work unfortunately never really had the talent to pull off the biggest feature of what constitutes a killer thrash metal band and that is the art of crafting catchy and memorable compositions. Although the tracks on this debut are all performed quite well with all instrumentalists sounding well seasoned in their playing ability, the album comes off as rather generic as if the entire album was a paint by numbers set of how to craft thrash metal music 101. There are no creative moments on this album but rather this debut simply shows the band able to copy stylistic approaches of bands that were in the limelight ten years prior. While the band did have a small and loyal following because of its rather generic approach never really set the world on fire. Not one of the Bay Area’s most gifted bands but totally listenable and worthy of exploring for those who want to dig deeper.