ANGKOR WAT — When Obscenity Becomes the Norm... Awake! (review)

ANGKOR WAT — When Obscenity Becomes the Norm... Awake! album cover Album · 1989 · Crossover Thrash Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"When Obscenity Becomes the Norm... Awake!" is the debut full-length studio album by US crossover thrash metal act Angkor Wat. The album was released through the Metal Blade Records subsidiary label Death Records in April 1989. Angkor Wat formed in 1986 and was originally a hardcore punk act playing cover tunes, but slowly moved towards a crossover thrash metal sound before the release of "When Obscenity Becomes the Norm... Awake!".

And the music on the album indeed is a marriage between hardcore punk and thrash metal. Angkor Wat are not terribly unique sounding, but deliver their aggressive and predominantly fast-paced tracks with conviction. David Brinkman is a raw and aggressive sounding frontman, but his vocal style is slightly one-dimensional and the intensity of his delivery varies a bit from track to track. Sometimes he sounds really dedicated to the project and other times he sounds a bit tired.

While Angkor Wat is a Corpus Christi, Texas based act it´s actually the early output by artists like Lawnmower Deth and Cerebral Fix (both British acts) that I´m mostly reminded of. But when Angkor Wat are in hardcore punk mode more than thrash mode it´s Dead Kennedys I hear references to. Angkor Wat are a relatively well playing band so they pull off both styles with conviction.

"When Obscenity Becomes the Norm... Awake!" is not the most well produced album out there and that´s a minor issue, but if I have to mention an issue that´s a bit of a show stopper it´s that the material aren´t that memorable. One song is followed unnoticed by the next and even though there are often a stylistic change happening, it´s not like you´ll be able to remember the tracks anyway. It´s still somewhat a solid release by Angkor Wat though and a 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.
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