Description

Rare original Metal Blade 1991 press with printed innersleeve

Intruder is an under-appreciated thrash act that escaped the attention of many thrashers because they were located in Nashville, TN instead of the Bay Area. They were obviously heavily influenced by Anthrax. “Psycho Savant” is full of well-written songs with great riffs, effective transitions, and commanding solos that are important parts of the song. Bonus points awarded for lyrics about that classic Twilight Zone episode “It’s A Good Life”, probably my favourite episode (and its sequel) of the series that I’ve seen. This album has some technical playing at times, somewhere in the spectrum between the technicality of Anthrax and Toxik. The best songs to me are “Geri’s Lament (When)” and “It’s a Good Life” but really there aren’t any bad songs on this album. There’s also a really nice clean guitar intro to “Invisible” that is well above the types of melodies most thrash bands ever came up with. Having a few long songs is fine for thrash but most songs here are over 6 minutes and that may be asking a bit too much from most thrash fans. Long thrash songs might have been more appropriate if this release had contained as many riffs and variations as Dark Angel’s “Time Does Not Heal”. As noted earlier, perhaps a bit of improvement in the drumming and vocal performance could have elevated this release a bit. Keep in mind though that I consider these criticisms to be relatively minor considering the number of things “Psycho Savant” has done well and I consider this album to be a gem of underground metal.

Track list:
1. Face Of Hate
2. Geris Lament (When)
3. The Enemy Within
4. Its A Good Life
5. Invisible
6. Traitor To The Living
7. Final Word
8. N.G.R.I.