The songs mix up the tempos a lot and tend to lean towards more moderate paces, and are also way longer (averaging three to four minutes, some even longer) than those of many other crossover bands at the time. Admittedly that's one of the problems I have with this band, because they're good, but they do get a little boring after awhile, because the songs don't usually need to be as long as they are. They have a tendency to throw in too many lead riffs and breaks that serve little purpose. Take for instance the clean guitars, keyboards, and painful singing that start off the six-minute "Sustain the Orgy"... there's just no need for that. But in general the songs mix up power chords with thrashy picking patterns and metal riffs, sounding largely like a crossover thrash metal band with the ruggedness and message of hardcore, as well as straightforward vocals that are sort of shouted in key, less aggressive than possibly expected.
The band is definitely at their best during faster, shorter tracks like "Sadists". Like the other Speedstate reissues that I've heard I can't help but wish that the remastering was done just a little bit louder, but it sounds pretty good for its age. The mix is somewhat thin and lacking low-end, but the drums, guitars, and vocals are pretty even, and I like the texture of the guitar tone a lot. The 1988 demo sounds pretty rough. Listenable to some degree, but rough. It's really muddy and there's a lot of warping sort of effects from the master tape, which is a shame because the songs seem slightly more focused. The same goes for the live tracks. They sound okay, but not that great, and I don't find them all that enjoyable to listen to. The disc comes in a nice digipack with some of the original LP artwork and a foldout insert with tons of old band photos and flyers collaged around. The lyrics to the tracks from the LP are inside, dealing with typical topics like animal rights, war, greed, etc. - but the approach is actually a little different from normal, which is interesting. "Man wages war on his own planet, 'til only man remains, He obliterates his fellow creatures just for capital gain, His power crazed ambitious mind is eager to reach the top, And in this dead and silent world he's not an easy force to stop..." Awesome. I wouldn't necessarily consider this to be as strong as some of the stuff that Heresy, Ripcord, etc. were doing, but it's definitely worth owning for fans of the genre.
Tracklist
Side A:
1 Intelligence Quest
2 Who Was The First?
3 Eminent Scum
4 Sustain The Orgy
5 Ten Steps To Oblivion
6 Each Day A New Low
Side B:
1 New Breed
2 Salt Of The Earth
3 Civilised
4 Torn
5 Your Turn Next
6 Sadists