Nasty Savage
Indulgence

Release Date: 1987 | Tracklist

From the release of their self-titled debut in 1985, Nasty Savage had filled the sort of niche occupied by the likes of comparable peers in the US metal scene such as Slauter Xstroyes or Juggernaut: dense, oddball and somewhat intense USPM with loads of compositional ambition derived from their influence from bands like Mercyful Fate. However, despite the now-renowned vigor with which they wrote music and promoted themselves by that point, the following couple years proved to be an even more busy and transformative time for these Floridans as they had undergone a crucial shift in their sound, The result was 1987’s Indulgence. A true American metal classic that would prove to be one of the most groundbreaking of its time.

At first glance, a lot of the band’s sound is seemingly intact from the debut but they have taken a lot of their off-kilter proceedings from prior songs like The Morgue, Asmodeus and No Sympathy and shoved them fully right front and center with heightened levels of aggression. Guitar duo, David Austin and Ben Meyer, had melted away the ‘80s trad heavy/power metal trot of songs like Metal Knights in their entirety, supplanted by even more oblique song structures, jagged riffing and eerie progressions. Prime examples of this are songs like the title track, Incursion Dementia and Distorted Fanatic, which all showcase panicked staccato rhythms with melodies pirouetting and melding together with crazed frenzy. Along with the rather forward presence of their new bassist, Dezsõ István Bartha underscoring the chaos with stalwart and varied melodies of his own on cuts such as Inferno, they had transformed themselves into one of the original technical thrash acts while at the same time avoiding emulating the likes of Watchtower or Voivod in the process.

More than anything, that was part of the additional dimension which put Nasty Savage in the same league as giants like those bands. They were no doubt as ambitious as them but had kept themselves tonally grounded in a bloody, street-level attitude even as they introduced an increasingly unnerving atmosphere and psychological/gory themes, which is likely what had made them so appealing to several death metal acts of the burgeoning Floridan death metal scene such as Obituary and of course Death. Tracks like Stabbed in the Back and XXX could even be described as having an Exodus-esque groove or heft to them but that’s what makes their stylistic metamorphosis here more profound as it doesn’t come off as plodding or derivative in any way despite them having become completely thrash by this point.

There is also the matter of the final element that I believe makes this a work that was truly ahead of the curve. The band's maintenance of the borderline hallucinogenic vibe that their writing possessed from their beginnings on songs like End of Time from the self-titled, particularly in the more mid-tempo moments. The apex of this being the last four or so songs, all of them (to my ears) being a kind of thrash metal spiritual predecessor to the floating buoyant turbulence the songwriting showcased on an album like Demilich’s Nespithe. Whether it is due to how the lead melodies unfold on this album or the drum patterns and fills of Curtis Beeson, this is probably the earliest album to really have that sort of feeling in metal by 1987 even with death metal already starting to officially congeal as a proper subgenre. While this would be exacerbated on their following EP and their third LP, Penetration Point, this is the point it began.

I have often seen Indulgence labelled as a lesser transitionary effort or an album that was behind the times relative to its peers but frankly, that could not be further from the truth. While not possessing the kind of futuristic or technophobic atmosphere of some of their peers or the cold, clinical vibe of Destruction’s Release from Agony or Deathrow’s Deception Ignored, they were a band that had embraced their prior aesthetics and injected them with as much technique as the rest, becoming innovators of their own. Indulgence stands as an equal to any of those albums and Nasty Savage had acquired an ironically inimitable identity. There are many bands today I can think of that may emulate Watchtower or Voivod or a slew of other bands in the same vein. There are precious few I can think of who have aspired to replicate Nasty Savage’s own brand of madness. Listen to this.

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3.6 great