Intruder may not have been Nashville's first but they were definitely the city's best-known
thrash band. Veterans of various local
punk and
metal outfits,
Intruder built upon the
speed metal sound pioneered by bands like
Metallica and
Megadeth, adding elements of what would later become known as "
progressive metal" to their unrelenting aural attack. Fueled by the phenomenal virtuosity of guitarist
Arthur Vinett, the throaty growl of vocalist
James Hamilton, and the songwriting skills of drummer
John Pieroni,
Intruder built a large cult following across the United States and in Europe on the strength of their brutal live performances.
A Higher Form of Killing, the band's second album and their first for
Metal Blade Records, picks up the pace pretty much where
Intruder had left off with their self-produced debut,
Live to Die. Taking its title from the groundbreaking 1982 book on chemical and biological warfare by British journalists
Robert Harris and
Jeremy Paxman,
Pieroni's lyrics on
A Higher Form of Killing mix a high-tech doom-and-gloom worldview with a
science-fiction landscape that has much in common with
Voivod.
"The Martyr" compares Middle Eastern suicide bombers with radical Christian fundamentalists,
"Genetic Genocide" touches upon DNA therapy a decade or so before its widespread use, and
"Killing Winds" explores the use of chemical weapons on the battlefields of Europe. The high point of
A Higher Form of Killing, however, is a manic cover of
the Monkees' hit
"(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone," the
pop/rock chestnut revved up and delivered with all the subtlety of the business end of a sledge-hammer. A strong collection of chainsaw
speed metal,
A Higher Form of Killing put the so-called band from "Thrashville" on the musical map alongside genre giants like
Nuclear Assault. ~ Rev. Keith A. Gordon