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ZNOWHITE - ACT OF GOD (1988)

Chicago thrashers Znowhite's last album out of three (If you count their two EP's). Act of god was released in 1988 and their music is somewhat typical for the time era, rhythmic thrash which fans of the bay area-thrash can relate to.

There are bad album artworks and there are a Act of God by Znowhite, no other band has released a thrash metal album with such a horrible artwork, Pink grannies holding an eightball ain't exactly what gets my juices flowing.

The vocals are handled by Nicole Lee, quite unusual with female fronted bands. My favourite songs on this album is "To the last breath", "War Machine", "Pure Blood" and the odd nine minute long hymn "Something wicked (This way comes)".

Perhaps they' fell into obscurity because they didn't live in Germany or the Bay are at the time, because they debuted as early as in 1984 with the EP; All hail to thee. After this release Znowhite changed their name to Cyclone Temple and they continued to produce qualitative thrash but with male vocalist. The album itself is great but the production is a bit unpolished. A strong farewell from Znowhite.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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ZNÖWHITE - KICK 'EM WHEN THEY'RE DOWN (1985)

Znöwhite are most known for releasing the superb thrash metal album Act of God-album in 1988. Prior to that the band released two EPs. All Hail to Thee in 1984 and Kick 'Em When They're Down in 1985. On those two EP's Znöwhite played some dirty and raw speed metal, owing a lot of their sound to the likes of Motörhead and Exciter. But Znöwhite had a female vocalist which set them apart from most bands of the era. Add to that a very competent guitar playing by Ian Tafoya.

The EP is a lot of fun and it's kind of catchy in all that speed metal madness. The artwork itself is cool and enough reason to buy the EP but the music stands up well without being neither original or extremely fascinating. One cool fact about this EP is that it's produced by Paul Curcio who also produced Metallica's Kill 'Em All.

This is pure eighties stuff, never has it been fully re-created and who doesn't love pure filthy 80's sounding speed metal? I like Kick 'Em When They're Down but the best was yet to come...

⭐⭐⭐

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ZNÖWHITE - ALL HAIL TO THEE (1984)

All hail to thee was released in 1984 by Chicago based Znöwhite. Seven short songs timing in just under seventeen minutes.

Znöwhite started out as a speed metal band with raw punkish sound but they also own a lot of their sound to the american heavy metal scene that was growing strong in 1984. Znöwhite seperated themselves from most other bands as they had a female vocalist. But if you think of female fronted bands, Belgium's Acid comes to mind because both played speed metal and had a similar female vocalist. But Nicole Lee had a higher pitch, she can shatter glass with her voice.

All hail to thee also has a few Exciter / early Anthrax-vibes, mainly because it's fast, underproduced, raw and the vocals are highpitched. If you want bonecrushing thrash metal this might be to weak when it comes to the music, but if you like speed and heavy metal with vocals that sticks out. Znöwhite's debut is for you. Later Znöwhite evolved into a more regular thrash metal band but this was their first release and it hits you like a sledgehammer!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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ZOETROPE - AMNESTY (1985)

This is Zoetrope's debutalbum and it was released in 1985 on combat records. An early and quite intense piece of thrash, fast soloing without getting to brutal, it has a bit raw production that is a bit rough around the edges.

Some say that this is a classic, but I'm a bit confused, it has it's moments, but the vocalist Barry Stern is a bit annoying with his one-tone singing, fortunately he screams out the lyrics now and then, otherwise this would be very boring. "Member in a gang", "Amnesty" & "Creatures" are showing Zoetrope's strong sides, and of course "Mercenary", that song is a real thrash-gem, superriffing and with a chorus that you can't forget, real qualitative thrash similar to many other bands at the time (1985). Not far away from early Exodus, Metallica and even Slayer.

⭐⭐⭐

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