Thorazine “Vicious Cycle” 1998. Hell Yeah Records. Wicked-fast punk out of Philadelphia (they got sued by pharma-giant Smith-Kline-Beecham for their band’s name). Vicious Cycle is Thorazine’s second (of two) albums – they were pretty active in the 90’s, disbanded for a bit in 2003 and reunited in 2014 for a couple of singles and, according to their Bandcamp page, planned a new album in 2017 but I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen. I believe we saw them in ’98 at the Cactus Club while they were on tour for Vicious Cycle and I absolutely loved them – we picked up this record as well as their first, Crazy Uncle Paul’s Dead Squirrel Wedding (1996), at the show. It’s probably been since the late 90’s that I’ve listened to Vicious Cycle and…it’s still great!!! Frontwoman Jo-Ann Rogan is an absolute powerhouse punk singer with the perfect balance of a crystal clear voice and a wicked scream (I remember having a tiny girl-crush on her and chatting a bit after that Cactus Club show – she was lovely!). The rest of the band is super-tight with great thrash and melodies. So so many great songs on this LP but my top picks are the opener “I’m Happy,” the brutal and growling “Dirty Nasty Sex,” the thrash-punk that goes abruptly mellowish-melodic “Jacob” and the excellent “Don’t Need None of Your Shit.”  Even the hilarious 60’s girl-group/Sha-na-na inspired “Food” (“fooo-oo-ood, I want my food”) is fantastic. The only track I don’t care for is “Better Than Here” which is not sung by Rogan; it’s a pretty bland 90’s punklette that lacks the punch that characterizes the rest of the LP. There’s not much out there on the web about Thorazine, but I did find this low quality video of a show from ’97: