Atrophy

Socialized Hate (1988)

Roadracer Records

Rating: 4 out of 4 Skulls

Reviewed by: Jeff Deth

I fucking love this record. Atrophy is this great little unknown band from Arizona, that sadly was short-lived. They came up along with fellow Arizonians, Flotsam and Jetsam and Sacred Reich. Being from outside The LA, Bay-Area or New York scenes must have been tough on the band. But they did do well enough to get signed and do a couple tours to support two full-length albums.

Socialized Hate was their debut from 1988, and boy did it show some promise. This record just rips from beginning to end, they really put the speed behind their aggressive thrash attack. The solos are plentiful from dueling guitarists Chris Lykins and Rick Skowron. They both play really clean and technical shredding leads throughout the record. The soloing in particular is one of my favorite aspects of listening to this band.

The other really cool component of the band is the lyrical content. Lykins wrote most of the words and he’s clearly an intelligent and informed individual. Like a lot of the thrash bands, Atrophy takes a very political stance on a variety of issues from warfare to religion to institutionalized racism. They were clearly more than just a party band. Overall pretty clever and sophisticated for music that makes you want to trash your bedroom. All the songs have a point to make but not necessarily in an over-bearing way. And just to prove they’re not all that serious, they have a comic on here about beer bonging.

Even if you didn’t give a shit about the words it’s easy just to get carried away with the music itself. Killer speed, killer aggression.

Stand out tracks like “Killing Machine”, “Socialized Hate” and “Urban Decay” make this a record worth many listens.

Great production has to be mentioned due to the legendary work of Bill Metoyer. Metoyer has worked with tons of thrash bands like Slayer, Dark Angel, D.R.I. and Laaz Rockit. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction for the band. I would love to have seen them stay together for a few more releases.