Invocator were a somewhat overlooked Danish act who produced some excellent and diverse sounding thrash metal. Despite producing several demos in the late 80's their debut album Excursion Demise was not released until 1991, a thrash album coming out in 1991 would have had a lot to contend with. Death metal was at the height of its power while the legions of second wave black metal were lurking in the shadows, both of which would make the average thrash album sound quite tame by comparisson.
Excursion Demise was thankfully far from average and sounds in no way tame, while very much thrash metal Invocator's sound has elements that brings them close to death metal. Firstly Invocator are fast, fucking fast and coupled with the twisting riffs and arrangements Excursion Demise is almost bewildering. Combined with a violent delivery typical of the teutonic proto-death/thrashers Kreator and Sodom and the wild Slayer-esque solos makes Excursion Demise a genuinely intense listen; however, the vocals are more reminiscent of Dark Angel and Kreator, while that may represent the rawer more aggressive thrash vocals there are no real growls or gutturals to be found here.
Despite the speed and technical nature of these songs Invocator were savvy enough to break the blistering pace with a few well placed interludes and some groovier mid-paced passages (though even then it's still pretty fast). My only real gripe is that despite an excellent clear production the guitars actually feel a tad brittle, the preceeding demos were if anything heavier.
This album was released by Black Mark and as with many of their less well known and often better releases this is not easy to get hold of, there has only been one pressing of this album to date and neither cd or vinyl come cheap, so if you see a copy snap it up sharp.
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