Unlike San Francisco, New York City and Germany, Sweden was never quite the hotbed for thrash activity in the ’80s, but there was one band that made plenty of “Noise” with their first demo tape, Ground Zero. The self-released cassette from Uppsala’s MIDAS TOUCH rapidly made its way through trading circles and as such attracted attention from a prominent German metal label Noise Records. The label that counted acts like Helloween, Vendetta and Coroner on their storied roster, eventually signed MIDAS TOUCH on the strength of their demo.
Producer Roy M. Rowland (Laaz Rockit, Kreator, Testament) was brought in to work on what would become MIDAS TOUCH’s sole album, 1989’s Presage of Disaster. A rollicking romp of technical thrash in the vein of DEATHROW, SABBAT and D.B.C., the album garnered raves from the metal literati, eventually gaining sales in excess of 60,000 units.
But along the pathway to assured success MIDAS TOUCH’s flame was extinguishe