RSS Feed


POLTERGEIST
Writing On The Wall (1988)

Switzerland is really getting on the thrash map now and 90% of it is top class. Most recent on the scene were Apocalypse and now there’s Poltergeist, a four-piece formed back in 1985.

Although this demo has sizeable amounts of Destruction on it (Schmier and Harry have a large amount of credit space), Poltergeist appear to have avoided a lot of the traps that some bands fall into when they’re aided by other groups. Schmier produced this tape, the band’s second demo, and he’s done quite a good job. But the best part of the tape is the music, as it should be. Plenty of uptempo rhythms and heavy duty thrashing, without any of the crass cliché’s prevalent in newer bands of today.

Poltergeist’s present line-up is V.O. Pulver (guitar), Walter Schäfer (drums) – the band’s two best musicians in my opinion – André Grieder (vocals) and Thomas Steiner (bass), and this tape, Writing On The Wall, really shows an excellent outfit striving for recognition. Each of the three songs – the title track, ‘Inner Space’ and ‘Shooting Star’ – are complex and convincing enough to prove even to the casual observer that Poltergeist have a future if someone takes the plunge with them.

Mike Exley

Review taken from Metal Forces, Issue 31 (1988)

<< Back to Demo Reviews
Share