Dragon-Horde of Gog

Metal Mind
1988/2008

Poland's Dragon would eventually be one of the scene's pioneers in death metal. They formed in 1984 and went through some line-up changes before settling down and recording their debut "Horde of Gog" in 1988. Humble beginnings indeed as the quality of this album are of demo quality at best. The music finds Dragon playing a style that's much more thrash than death metal. However they tear into their material with frenzied abandon. The drums are particularly chaotic as they throw traditional structure to the wind and just crash ahead. The playing is somewhat primitive even for 1988, but it has a sense charm just due their crazed enthusiasm. The structure is loose and even a little messy in parts yet they never get bogged down or too far off track. The playing as a whole isn't terribly skilled, but it's more hit than miss just due to the amount of aggression they pump into it. In many ways this is a more brutal effort than the two albums than would follow. In fact hearing this album makes me wonder what their music would have sounded like had they followed this style more closely. This re-issue of the album includes 9 bonus tracks taken from the Polish language version of the LP. The booklet includes lyrics, a band biography and several early photos of the band. Not an essential release perhaps, but definitely a good dose of old-style, pulverizing thrash.