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China's underground Metal label, AreaDeath Productions, has been doing a great job bringing long lost and forgotten gems back to light again. I have no idea how many of you old farts still remember Insaniac, a 4-piece Speed/Thrash Metal act from New Jersey, but the fact is the band never made it big despite releasing a handful of quality demos back in the day. The band's 1986 debut demo, Screams from the Asylum, brought them some notoriety worldwide, with the guys showing their claws were as sharp as any other underground Speed or Thrash Metal bands at that time.

The Terminal Madness collection contains the full Insaniac discography of everything they ever recorded. It's got all of their official demos, as well as some re-recorded versions of old songs that perfectly reflect the times when the underground scene was the only place for discovering talented new Metal acts, some that made a decent career for themselves and many that didn't. Insaniac were destined to stay in the underground, never really getting a chance to break out, even though they absolutely deserved the opportunity to put an album out. The band's second demo, Psychomania, originally released in 1987, showed great improvement in terms of songwriting, taking an innovative musical road that set them apart from many of their Thrash comrades. Perhaps a band like Anacrusis was on the same level as Insaniac when it comes down to progressive and original Speed and Thrash Metal. The only difference was Anacrusis made it big and Insaniac did not.

Nevertheless, Terminal Madness offers evidence of the greatness the underground Metal scene had to offer. Be sure to grab a copy because the 1000 copies that were made won't last forever.