Song: A Soldier’s Creed
Album: Act Of God
Year: 1988
Genre: Thrash Metal
Nothing special. Typical. Dismissible. These convey my feelings about the early output of Chicago unit Znowhite. None of their initial works stood up out of the crowd of spiked wristbands and banging heads to say, “I deserve to be recognized.” That was until their swansong, Act Of God, which so happens to be in my top ten of thrash records ever recorded. Still to this day I find it odd that a band with such mediocre output could crank out this truly stellar album. How did this happen? I’m not quite sure. At first I thought it may have been the poor musical judgment of my youth that was the cause for the high praise. Nope. This record has stood the test of time and personal taste. The thing I do know is that the riffs on Act Of God are monumental and bludgeon the listener with aggression, intensity and accuracy. There are so many galloping riffs and mid tempo crushers to bang thy head with. For my money, the rhythm guitar on this record reaches the ranks of Master Of Puppets era Metallica, Extreme Aggression era Kreator and The Legacy era Testament. Yep, I truly believe it is that good. As for the rest of the instrumentation, it all follows suit to create songs that are dynamic and to the point. The other standout is the vocal performance of Nicole Lee. Her powerful, gravel soaked growl and rhythmic sense fit in perfectly with the thrash assault being perpetrated by the rest of the band. None of this, “she’s really good for a woman” stuff here. She’s just really good. By the time this record was released, too many new bands were just carbon copies of their much superior predecessors; which, in time, led to the death of the 80s thrash movement. Znowhite was smart enough and capable enough to place itself outside of the copycat thrash parade with great, heavy songs. Something about this album had me hooked from day one and I’m still hooked 25+ years later.
Listen to "A Soldier's Creed" here.