Album Details

• Artist: Realm
• Album: Suiciety
• Label: Roadrunner / Metal Mind
• Year of Release: 2006
• Original Release: 1990
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2008-08-08

Realm were a progressive-thrash metal group that left the scene almost as quickly as they showed up after two albums, their debut Endless War and this 1990 release, the pretty cool titled Suiciety. They were often lumped into the Bay-Area American thrash scene of the 80's and early 90's, but their progressive intent does seem to negate that to an extent. Still, at it's heart, this album is a massive (a somewhat too-massive, atypical sort of) beast of pure-blooded thrash. It's influences are both the progressive rock that was prevalant all throughout the 80's and the hardcore punk that injected metal with a healthy dose of pure adrenaline during the same period.

Suiciety is anchored by the twin-guitar assault of Takis Kinis and Paul Laganowski, who's punchy, ballsy riffs and sharp ear for melody highlight the majority of these fast-paced rockers. "Cain Rose Up (Scream Bloody Murder" is a helluva opener, the grinding intro giving way to furious proto-blast beats and technically swift leads. The rhythm section is spot-on throughout, but acts as mostly a driving force instead of puffing itself up as the rest of the band tends to do. Good or bad thing, depending on who's listening. Other memorable tracks include the Megadeth-ish "Gateway", "Dick" and "Energetic Discontent". The 9-minute title track is hit-or-miss, taking way too much time to make a point that would've taken half that time to really get across. This re-issue also includes a cover of King Crimson's "One More Red Nightmare", one of my favorite KC tracks. It's done admirably here, but doesn't much benefit from the Realm treatment. It is what it is.

And that's pretty much what I've made of this record. It sounds not so much similar to other thrash acts of it's time, but maybe not as polished or focused. The music tends to be more of an overload of ideas lapped atop one another rather than truly memorable songs, and as such it's more likely to appeal to those who live for the technical aspects of their music, namely the skills of their favorite guitarists and such. They might have influenced a band or two to look deeper at their pure skills with their instruments, and for that I still should like to thank Realm for doing what they did. Progressive metal has been refined to the point of near mastery today, but bands like this helped paved the way. 

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