Allegiance - Destitution (1994)

Well, here it is.

The biggest Heavy Metal band to ever come out of Perth, the biggest Metal album export Perth has ever created, the band who set the bar so high it is still unsurpassed by any Perth metal band to follow. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the high water mark of all Perth Metal albums, Allegiance's "Destitution".

Heavy and yet catchy, full-throttle yet commercial, brilliantly recorded and high budget, 1994's "Destitution" was Allegiance's finest creation, their coup de grace. After a handful of demos - one of which sold over 2000 copies and was acclaimed all over the world mind you - and a combination of hard work onstage and very hard work behind the scenes, Allegiance finally had a product worthy of their efforts and released it nationally in 1994 with NO mainstream exposure whatsoever. In a time when metal in Australia was far more underground than it is now and the internet was little more than a tool for computer geeks, "Destitution" flew out of the record shops, even shooting to number one on the Australian CD sales charts and staying there for 3 weeks. Let me just repeat that: A Perth metal band topped the national ARIA charts, and they were called Allegiance.

Allegiance were to go on to become the biggest metal band in Australia, touring with such greats as Machine Head, Beastie Boys, Fight, Biohazard, Channel Zero, Kreator, Pantera, Fear Factory, Slayer, Kiss and more. And this in a time when a couple of international bands touring a year was enough to consider it a great year. But back to the album...

Combining thrash and elements of speed with a hefty slice of groove, this album just crawls with slammin' riffs and gutsy guitar work. The songs are so catchy to be almost commercially friendly in this day and age, but they are way too thrashy to find their way into acceptance by the sheep of the popmusic world. The raw metal energy and yet catchiness of songs like "Torn Between two Worlds" and "Hate Frenzy" have proven that they have the staying power to keep them relevant today. Somehow the formula in Allegiance just came together right at this point, the individual members peaked at just the right time to create this piece of metal artistry. Although the followup CD "Skinman" has the same ingredients to work with, "Destitution" left it in the dust, this material was their A-game material, honed over years of gigging and touring. In its time considered a pretty goddamn heavy album, "Destitution" can hold its own with the best of them, and some songs like the high-octane anthems "Dealt the Cruel Hand" and "Downward Spiral" are fast and aggressive enough to mix it up with the new much heavier crop of bands in Perth 16 years later.

The guitars riffs and tone are just about perfectly proportioned, fat and thumping, sharp as platinum needles and just oozing with moshability. They don't do anything spectacular in a modern sense, but they don't need to, they are balanced just right with the rest of the band to give just what they gotta give and no wank on top. The bass is precise and slick, burrowed into the drums like a tick, and the drums themselves are exact, powerful and varied. Heavy without being overly kick-dominant, they can tend to sound a bit dated in terms of the evolution of metal drumming... but it doesn't matter worth a damn because they held Allegiance's sound together extremely well and on "Destitution" they sound pretty bloody balltearing. Even Conrad's hideously limited vocal abilities, variation and range don't seem to be detrimental on this CD. Conrad always had a great metal voice when it was used right and the songwriting of "Destitution" and the mega-catchy choruses not only make his vocals work well, with the group vocals backing him here and there he sounds like a superstar. Again, it's all about chemistry.

To me, a classic song should stay in your head long after hearing it, and has that undefineable combination of catchiness and just fucking goodness. Any local album that has a classic song on it can be considered a good album, 2 songs of genius and it becomes a bit of a classic album. When I sat down to review this CD I had it playing in the CD player, and I stopped to have a feed. An hour later I heard my lady humming the tune of "Hate Frenzy" in the bedroom, the songs are just that mindgrabbing. On this one 12 track CD, Allegiance has 7 classic songs. SEVEN. "Chaos Dies", "Hate Frenzy", "Torn Between two Worlds", "One Step Beyond","Dealt the Cruel Hand", "Morally Justified", and "Twisted Minds" are all classics in the opinion of this reviewer.

I could say more. I won't, because as proud West Australian headbangers I am sure that you already all have this album, and who needs to read a review when you can just stick your copy in the CD player?

All hail Allegiance, Kings of Perth Metal.

Review by Jez.