In the mid-’80s, metal-hardcore crossover emerged as an efficient alternative to heavy-metal hyperbole, with punk minimalism replacing shredding guitar solos, ambient guitar intros, and six-minute songs. But now the filler is making its way back in. To Die For opens with bone-crunching bounce on “Taste My Sin,” which is interrupted in short order by an Eddie Van Halen fretboard spazz-out. Two of the eight remaining tracks are guitar instrumentals. They’re mercifully short, but they’re bound to inspire some unsuspecting youngster to top them. Dwid has been around long enough to know better. In the album-closing title cut, he reminisces about the scene in ’88. But he’s apparently forgotten that music like this is what killed that golden age.
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2003.