MORTAL SIN - Face Of Despair CD

Mortal Sin was apparently a hyped act back in the day, though much of this was likely due to their stylistic similarity to early Metallica combined with a lack of what might be dubbed unnecessary stylistic evolution that had infected Hetfield and company. Much of their notoriety was tied to the raw and vital debut they kicked out in 1986 (arguably the greatest year for 80s thrash metal) that drew heavily from the "Kill Em' All" formula while tuning out much of the extras that Metallica began throwing in soon after. By way of contrast, "Face Of Despair" takes a more polished approach in terms of production, and largely comes off as a faster version of "Ride The Lightning" minus the balladry. While it might have been a bit presumptuous to call these guys the next Metallica, they definitely carried the label a bit better than some of their more technically oriented competition in the San Francisco Bay Area, some of whom were equally as blunt about where they got their ideas from.