Final Flight & Recipients Of Death

Another cool reissue from Vic Records, this time of an L.A. thrash band I had never heard of before. This compilation contains two mini-albums, Recipients of Death from 1988 and Final Flight from 1990, which were their only two releases. The band also wrote and recorded a new song in 2021 to accompany this compilation, "Death Forever."

Unsurprisingly, this is old-school thrash (or just thrash, back then ;)). These guys are more on the raw, underground and somewhat lo-fi end of the thrash spectrum of the day while lots of bands were doing it way "cleaner," so if you like your thrash more in-your-face and unpolished yet including some subtle (and not-so-subtle) melodies, this will do it. There are a lot of influences here; I hear some crossover as well as lots of passages that remind me of the likes of Sacrifice and Slayer (in their late ‘80s/early ‘90s incarnation). "Death Forever" definitely sounds more actual in that it was written and recorded more than 30 years and it feels a little off as the 6th track, but it’s pretty damn cool—heavy and fast but without vocals, this sounds like one of those instrumental songs that Montreal’s Metalian play at the beginning of every show. Fans of old dirty thrash should get a kick out of this compilation.