Customer Reviews

In Search of Sanity (Reis)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remember this late '80's metal release, believe it featured former Grim Reaper vocalist / frontman Steve Grimmett (one of hell's true rejects - keep in mind he's on this Onslaught record only). Tunes here I got the most out of were the title track "In Search For Sanity", the in-your-face "Lightning War", their decent cover of AC/DC's anthem "Let There Be Rock" and "Welcome To Dying". Might draw in fans of Celtic Frost, Possessed, King Diamond and Cryptic Slaughter {have always loved that name}. Not bad at all.

Excellent. A Masterpiece.

This sounds like early day Metallica. The riffs are incredible, and the crunch is some of the best I've heard since the days of "Killem All" and "Ride The Lightning"....

Ex- Grim Reaper vocalist S. Grimmet makes this release extra special. He's got a perfect voice for this kind of music, and this is the only release he did with Onslaught. I don't know what this would sound like without him. I think he's great...

The guitars are melodic, and very catchy. The overall sound is very old-school, and it's great to hear Onslaught putting forth this kind of effort. It's a mixture between 80's Metallica riffs, and 80's Maiden vocals IMO....

You wont be disappointed. This was one of the strongets Thrash Metal releases when it came out. It's unfortunate it didn't get the praise it highly deserves. Songs like "Shellshock", "Blood Upon The Ice", and "Blitzkrieg" are incredible...

I have owned this disk since 1990, and I must say it's an excellent choice. Steve Grimmet(ex-Grim Reaper front man) is at some of his best here. Rob Trotman and Nige Rockett do some sweet guitar on this. The first "song" is not really a song at all, but 5+ minutes of sound effects. This kind of stuff you can play on Halloween to scare the kids. The rest of the disk is solid. Good fret work, solid timings, and some edge to those guitars. There are covers of AC/DC's Let there be Rock and Angel Witch's Confused(both done real well), but the center piece is the 12+ minute long epic Welcome to Dying. A song that I think is about someone on life support. Sheer metal offerings here.

Now, I have not heard the remaster. But on the original there was a mixing issue. The drums are entirely too loud. They drowned out most of the bass guitar and sits on top of the rest of the music a bit. I had my CD player running through an EQ for a while to bring the guitars back up to par, but in the end it didn't sound right that way. I got used to the mix eventually. Not really a bad thing, but slightly annoying, might be fixed on remaster.

This is a band that went through a sort of radical change by the time this album came out. Whatever they were before, this album shows them as a thrash band (to my ears) in the vein of early Anthrax.

From what I read, Steve Grimmet was forced on them by their manager even though their original singer made them happy. I don't know how that affected the band chemistry, but it may have influenced the rather mediocre song material. I for one, thing Grimmet has a very powerful voice. I think it could even have fitted better with Onslaught had the circumstances been different. As it is, the results are a mixed bag.

Though I appreciate them doing something different, the first cut, 4+ minutes of moaning and screaming is a great excuse for the skip button after one listen. The music finally takes off in the second and title track. This is where there is a disparity between the heavy Thrashy sound and the vocals. It is pretty easy to follow the melody through the verses, but when it comes to the chorus, it's almost as if Mr. Grimmet is going one way while the band is going the other. His melodic vocals don't seem to mesh with what the guitar players are doing. I don't fault him for that but it seems the song structure itself is the culprit in this disparity.

The rest of the songs on side one have this same defect. Parts of each song are well done and melodious, then there is a section, usually the chorus where the vocal melody and the guitar chords are not on the same page.

Once things got going on side two, the music and vocals meshed a lot better. Now I was more satisfied with the music. If they could have done the same for side one, I would have given this more stars.

The musicianship and the vocals are top notch. However, for parts of this album, they just don't mesh. And, I don't think starting the album with Asylum, the skip-able track, did them any favors. Recommended for fans only.

good heavy metal cd from onslaught,they not a popular band,but they are a good band, and i,ll recommend anybody a heavy metel fan to buy this cd.

In Search of Sanity was the third album from UK thrashers Onslaught, and is one of their more controversial albums. The band went through a major lineup change this time around, most notably hiring of Steve Grimmett as their new vocalist. If you're familiar with the man's work in Grim Reaper, you know he's not exactly what you'd consider a thrash metal vocalist.

Onslaught was still very much a thrash band, and In Search of Sanity is very much a thrash album, full of high speed riffing and pounding rhythms. Grimmett's presence gave the band a more traditional, NWOBHM-style feel. The result is an album that is equal parts Metallica (and maybe Testament) and Iron Maiden, and I think it's an incredible combination. In Search of Sanity has tons of speed and aggression as well as power and finesse. Grimmett is such an underrated vocalist, and he really delivers here.

In Search of Sanity would be worth buying just for one song, the epic "Welcome to Dying." I mean, come on, a 12-minute thrash song!?! Even though it rips off Metallica's "Sanitarium" a little at the beginning, this is still an amazing and powerful song. The rest of the album is about as good once you get past the 5-minute introductory track "Asylum." "Powerplay, "Lightning War" and the title track stand out in particular, as does the band's version of the AC/DC classic "Let There Be Rock", which is perhaps the one song on the album not suited to Grimmett's voice.

Yes, it's different than previous Onslaught efforts, but I still love In Search of Sanity. It's a great thrash album, a great power/traditional metal album, and one of Steve Grimmett's best performances. I'd recommend it to just about any fan of 80's metal.

Edition Notes: Candlelight reissued In Search of Sanity in 2006. There aren't any bonus tracks, but the album has been remastered. Hell, I'm just happy this album is back in print.

THE grim reaper VOCALIST in this album its pretty good. let there be rock its the best song on this album, but its not their best album. I would go with "killing peace" as their best. The satanic verses are not my pet-peeve, and i think without the satanic verses, they would be more popular. if you are an ONSLAUGHT FAN, this album should be in your collection.

I followed Onslaught in the 80's after picking up their excellent 2nd album The Force. This was their 3rd and major label debut and it shows with the leap in sound quality. What I like about them is the endless crunchy riffing and the excellent singers they had on both albums, it is great when you can make out the words with this kind of music, I dont really want to hear constant roaring down the mike. I remember this album didnt go down too well with their fans as they left their satantic roots behind and went for a more polished Metallica type sound, but then I remember the same astonishingly happened Metallica with Ride The Lightning. I didnt mind one bit as what you got here is about 40 mins of well produced and mixed speed/power/thrash metal, the sound of the album is excellent, like a more polished Master Of Puppets. This is forgetting about the 5 min intro, the cover of Let There Be Rock which is competent but boring and last song which seems to be some kind of poor quality sounding add on track.
The music is powerful, riff laden and very heavy and as was with The Force each song is 6 min plus. If you like early Metallica, Exodus and Megadeth then you should get this

This band, I don't know if they ever made it big, but they should. Their sound on this album is a little like early Metallica, with nice fast crunchy riffs and a little more "techno" sound for lack of a better word.

Songs are excellent, especially the long, trance-like "Welcome to Dying." "Blood Upon the Ice", "Power Play", the Title track -- all good.

Don't be misled by the opening track -- it's just a warmup, not their real sound.

This "platter" gets a lot of play on my "turntable" these days.