Downpicked

Grinding speed metal rampages like "Disasterpiece" and "New Abortion," and the hyperspeed, furiously downpicked punk-style riffing of "Everything Ends" are no doubt harder, faster and, at least lyrically, sicker.

The Young Marble Giants song "Final Day" could serve as Minor Angels's soundtrack: a single sci-fi theremin note hovers over a quavering organ, muted, downpicked guitar, and a plain but lovely female voice that sings about the final day, the world lighting up for the last time only to fall into endless night "for the people who never had a say."

There's awesome speed, the revolutionary (for the time) blending of Brit-metal bombast— think Priest, Maiden, and especially Diamond Head—with the street-level aggression of hardcore punk, and the fierce technical edge of the music, best exemplified by Hetfield's aggressively downpicked, heavily palm-muted rhythm-guitar attack.