Pendulum - Atrocity Sin (1990)

This is decent thrash from the late 80's San Antonio scene. It's relatively uneventful, but the riffs are faster and more involved than normal. Perhaps they were inspired by fellow Texans WatchTower and Helstar. The guitar solos are about average -- the style is pointless wankery, but they show some remarkable speed and skill. Unfortunately, the vocals are worse than average -- the singer has that goofy half-talked/half-sung-with-no-range style that was more common with punk bands of the time. In addition, the production is weak and the vocals are mixed way too loud, so sometimes it's hard to hear the guitars. The best song here is the 8-minute mostly-instrumental "Crown of Thorns" (vocals kick in about the 5:30 mark). The band apparently put out a demo/EP after this, so I'll be on the lookout for that as well, as this shows some potential.