Independent

Arizona political thrashers Sacred Reich seemed all set to explode after the success of their 1990 opus The American Way. But almost three years would go by before anything was heard from them again, and by the time they finally returned with 1993's Independent, their momentum was lost and thrash metal in general was pretty much yesterday's news. Not that you'd be able to tell from Independent's first two songs: The title track (featuring a guitar riff so good, they used it twice on the same record -- simply slowing it down for "Open Book") is a sarcastic onslaught the likes of which no band could do as well as the Reich, and "Free" follows suit with its equally powerful and ironic social commentary. But the songwriting takes a sharp dip in quality from there, and Phil Rind and company waste endless time on increasingly pedestrian mid-tempo protest moshers. In fact, variety only makes a belated return on the aforementioned "Open Book" and "I Never Said Goodbye" -- an epic power metal ballad very uncharacteristic of the Reich, but quite good nonetheless. Not exactly an essential release, but it'll do the trick for Sacred Reich fanatics.