KILLJOY — Compelled by Fear (review)

KILLJOY — Compelled by Fear album cover Album · 1990 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Compelled by Fear" is the debut and sole full-length studio album by US thrash metal act Killjoy. The album was released through Restless Records in January 1990. Lead vocalist Killjoy founded the band after Necrophagia disbanded. Around the same time he also founded another thrash metal act called Cabal who released the "Midian" album in 1990 and then disbanded. A fate very similar to Killjoy, who would also disband after releasing "Compelled by Fear". The two bands shared several members.

Compared to the relatively brutal thrash with death metal leanings that Cabal plays on "Midian (1990)", the music on "Compelled by Fear" is a much more straight US, Bay Area styled thrash metal. To my ears the music is very influenced by early Testament and especially Killjoy´s vocal delivery reminds me of a young Chuck Billy.

The musicianship is pretty strong on all posts, but neither the sound production nor the songwriting reaches more than an average quality level. The sound production is a bit thin sounding and lacks power and the tracks aren´t that memorable. The sparse soloing and the rather powerless instrumental track "Infected" really don´t help on the overall impression of the album either. When the most interesting thing about an album is the Edward J. Repka cover artwork, it does tell you something about the quality of the music. However great Edward J. Repka cover artworks generally are, it´s not a good sign that a cover artwork overshadows the quality of the music on an album. A 3 star (60%) rating may be a half star too much.
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