Initial Impressions: Militia: Released

Some labels have picked up on bands that have never issued a full length release, but instead are limited to a collection of demos and compilations. Militia is one of those bands, like XINR, Nirvana 2002, and Nihilist. Militia was a power/thrash metal band in the 1980's that released a series of demos, but no full-length album. One label eventually picked up the rights to the demos and released them as a compilation. It's nice that there are labels like that out there. Otherwise, a lot of music might never be heard.

I ordered this album off of the Rockadrome label site along with Devastation, Slauter Xstroyes, and Watchtower. So what do we have here?

The label lists their The Sybling EP as a collectors' classic. That might be overstating things a bit, but this is clearly some well-written 1980's style metal. The production value is a little muddy, but it's cleaned up enough to fully hear all of the instrumentation. The bass seems to be the driving force behind this band, thundering away beneath the guitar riffs and soaring vocals. The singer has a powerful voice somewhat reminiscent of Flotsam and Jetsam's early vocals. The vocals do get a little painful to listen to once in awhile, but it's rare. Anyone who listens to 1980's metal probably can listen to this without a problem.

Overall, the album is a good look at a band who never made it.