D.A.M – Inside The Wreckage
D.A.M. – Inside The Wreckage
Dissonance
Release Date: 30/01/2026
Review by Jon Deaux
8.3/10
A package was shoved through my letterbox, and it slammed upon the floor with a satisfying thud. Upon opening said package, and somewhere between my excitement at finally getting something delivered by Royal Mail, D.A.M’s “Inside the Wreckage” slipped from my clumsy sausage fingers and landed with a not-so-satisfying slap.
I dropped this two-disc brick in the old CD player expecting some dusty relic from the Thrash bargain bin and immediately got punched in the jaw by a band that sounds suspiciously alive for a group the industry left buried somewhere around the first Gulf War. I should’ve stretched my neck first. Of course, I should know better, since I still own both albums on CD from back in the day, and I’m on the wrong side of 50 – my chiropractor already hates me.
No reissue here; it’s a museum piece, and the artifacts still bite. You get “Human Wreckage” and “Inside Out”, the whole short but rowdy life span laid out across two discs. D.A.M. went from demo tape to Noise Records to then sharing stage space with Dark Angel and Candlemass, only to watch the whole scene evaporate faster than my hopes after scrolling through the news.
By the time the full-length ’89 debut “Human Wreckage” arrived, it swung in with enough rough edges to feel earned. Produced by Harris Johns-apparently the designated midwife for bands such as Helloween, Coroner, Tankard, Sodom, Voivod, Kreator, Exumer, Ratos de Porão, Slime, and many others who birthed an album in a European studio during that era.
Song titles tell it like it is: ‘Killing Time’, ‘Vendetta’, ‘Infernal Torment’. Tracks like these mean business in a definitely late-’80s way, one in which existential dread was conveyed via riffs rather than by doomscrolling. Lyrics yell about destruction and death, doom and destruction again, just in case you weren’t clear on the vibe the first time around. Subtlety was too busy peddling Aquanet hair spray along with bands like Faster Pussycat, Ratt, and Vixen.
Along came “Inside Out” a full 2 years later in ’91, with more variation, more chops, and just totally with no inkling that their genre was about to get bulldozed by new trends with flannel and acting like happiness was banned. D.A.M. honed the songwriting, put it all on tape, and the universe shrugged.
There’s something disarmingly human to the whole thing when one listens now, not in that nostalgically manipulative way but more “oh, right, there was a time when Metal felt dangerous and not curated by streaming platform playlists designed to keep you mildly entertained through laundry cycles.” Thrash bands didn’t think about algorithms; they cared if the venue had working toilets and if anybody in the crowd was sober enough to buy merch.
Liner notes and rare photos – culled directly from vocalist Jason McLoughlin’s personal archive – round out the set. The snapshots capture more sweat and dubious fashion choices than can possibly be legal, but that’s just what you want for a time capsule of Thrash. If the pictures were tasteful, I’d feel cheated.
What I love most about this band is that they didn’t go out quietly, they just got buried under changing tastes and bad luck. Thrash was on the decline, and suddenly everyone wanted bands that stare at their shoes and cry about weather patterns. D.A.M. deserved a better fate, but Metal history has always had a habit of eating its own children and then leaving bones in clearance bins.
“Inside the Wreckage” is a resurrection for those who lived through it; for the rest, you might almost envy being around in that era: nobody knew what they were doing, everybody just tried anyway. That’s Punk. That’s Thrash. That’s being young before you realise your spine has an opinion on everything.
Crank it, grin through the tinnitus, and thank whatever deity handles nostalgia that someone bothered to dig this up before the tapes dissolved.
TRACKLISTING:
DISC ONE – Human Wreckage
01. M.A.D.
002. Death Warmed Up
03. Killing Time
04. Left to Rot
05. Prophets of Doom
06. Terror Squad
07. Total Destruction
08. Infernal Torment
09. Vendetta
10. Human Wreckage
11. Aliens*
12. F.O.D. *
DISC TWO – Inside Out
01. Man of Violence
02. House of Cards
03. Appointment With Fear
04. Thought For the Day
05. Winter’s Tear
06. The Innocent One
07. My Twisted Mind
08. Circles
09. No Escape
10. Beneath Closed Eyes
11. Inside Outro
*Bonus Tracks
LINKS:
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