While not as polished and refined as their follow-up Zukunft, Norway's noplacetohide still put together some creative thrash metal sounds on their 1995 debut Vergangenheit. Long considered somewhat of a collector's item, this debut has been out of print for many years and now has been remastered and reissued as a deluxe limited edition with a second CD called From the Remains, which contains plenty of extra material, mostly demo and live versions of songs from the bands two releases as well as some unreleased material.
noplacetohide took the 80's thrash sounds of bands like Metallica, Exodus, and Testament and combined that element with the rhythmic firepower of Meshuggah, plus threw in some progressive rock for good measure. The result is an extremely heavy, technical, and groove oriented sound that is pretty refreshing to hear, even more than 10 years after its initial release. The molten yet complex riffery from guitarists Morten Fagerland and Espen T. Hangard weave impressive patterns around each other on the thick dirge of "Free", while the band goes off into intricate stop/start thunder on the progressive "Inverted", a song that also features some jazzy sax from Fagerland. Vocals on the album are handled by Hangard, who has a raspy hardcore type delivery (much like Hasse Moen who appears on their second album) on most songs but also adds some clean vocals as well. If you like pedal-to-the-metal, breakneck thrash, look no further than the tracks "Yearning", "Silence", and "Eyes Closed", all brutal numbers with raging rhythms and plenty of scorching guitar riffs. For the most part there is a lot of varied type material here, certainly heavy yet highly progressive, and I'm sure many people who have never heard of this band will be very surprised at just how impressive some of this stuff is.
The second CD contains all sorts of rarities, much of it of dodgy quality, but for the collector it is a must have as you can now own all the known recordings of noplacetohide with the reissue of Vergangenheit and Zukunft. The packaging on this one is pretty decent, with full lyrics, photos, and band info, making it and Zukunft both worthwhile purchases of solid Norwegian thrash. If all you know of Norway is black metal and want to hear something a little different, check out noplacetohide and hear what people in the underground have been talking about for years.
Track Listing
CD 1
1) Silence
2) Tomorrow
3) Vergangenheist
4) Eyes Closed
5) Sole
6) S.al.T.
7) Free
8) Inverted
9) Yearning
CD 2-From the Remains (demos, live tracks)
1) Yearning-Demo1992
2) Optional Oblisterations-Demo 1992
3) Communicational Misery-Demo 1992
4) Vergangenheist-Demo 1993
5) S.al.T-Demo 1993
6) Eyes Closed-Demo 1993
7) Tomorrow We'll Be Able to See-Demo 1993
8) Fader-Demo 1993
9) Stormcandle-Live 1994
10) Curved Circle-Live 1994
11) Fader-Live 1994
12) Flat Out Fucked-Demo 1997
13) Future-Demo 1997
14) Coin-Demo 1997
15) A Question of Time-Demo 1997
16) Counterfeit-Demo 1997
17) Capisce-Demo 1999
18) Recover-Demo 1999
19) We Saw What Came, It Didn't Scare Us-Demo 1999
20) Do The Good Things Crawl-Cloroform cover 2000
21) Sole Remix-Martin Horntveth Remix 2001
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