Originally released in 1989 and a forgotten German Speed Metal classic! Germany was home to many Thrash bands throughout the past 30 years. We have seen acts such as Exumer, Darkness, Mekong Delta, Deathrow, and Paradox leave an everlasting impression. However, one group was sadly ignored from the pack. This group was Speed/Thrash band Grinder. Grinder released “Dead End” on No Remorse Records (the label that brough us Blind Guardian) in 1989. By the year 1989 Thrash had exploded. Most of the territory was explored and new albums were simply an improvement of older bands; originality was scarce. Not that it mattered, because nobody at that point listened to new Thrash bands to hear something original. Right? Wrong. At least according to Grinder, who not only managed to create awesome headbangable metal, but also came up with an original sound. There are several things we really like about this release, one certainly being the production. It’s pretty top notch for a late 80’s release and has the intensity and raw sound that Thrash needs, while not sounding overly clean like a lot of early 90’s releases did. The variety here is what really makes this album. There aren’t any songs here that sound typical, instead we get some unexpecting twists and turns, great buildups, interesting slow sections, catchy choruses, original solo’s, and so on. Truly this one would be easy to call real Speed/Thrash. It has a lot of melodic moments and several early Blind Guardian comparisons, but for the most part it’s still totally in your face and catchy as hell. Grinder would go on to get Thrashier with their next releases and would leave the speed elements behind, though it’s hard to say if they were better writing material like this than their later stuff. Therefore, if you like intelligently executed Thrash, you should check out this courageous album. Grinder did their best to create a special work without fearing to cross the borders of their genre.
