Defiance - 'The Prophecy'

Yet another failed attempt from C-level thrash bashers.

There will always be those bands out there who sadly failed to make the impact they deserved. Then again, there will also always be those C-level acts who feel the desperate need to reform and attempt to make good on the promise the never had in the first place. You could count the Bay Area’s Defiance—and their crippled “comeback” The Prophecy—as one of the latter. Most famous for containing within their ranks one Steev Esquival—who would go on to form the groove metal abortion Skinlab—Defiance releases a trifecta of ho-hum, workmanlike thrash platters back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s…you know, way after the genre’s sell-by date.

The Prophecy. for one confounded reason or another, chooses not to expand on the band’s bare bones tough guy thrash template in any way, instead rehashing the same stylistic missteps which tripped up Defiance in the first place. While Jim Adams’ lead skills are pleasantly distracting in a vaguely Skolnick-ian (yes, I just made up a word) manner, they are simply not enough to masque the fact that Esquival--who was never a great singer in the first place—seems to take great pleasure in self-sabotaging this record every chance he gets.

While I can’t quite foresee there being a great demand for a new Defiance album, the fact that retro-thrash trend continues to steamroll across the underground, seemingly unabated, denotes that there might, in fact, be some unassuming youth who might wish to backtrack through thrash metal’s storied history in search of that classically forgotten ‘80s gem. If this is indeed true, then, my young lad or lass: there’s nothing to see here. Move along.