This album has struck me a little differently on nearly every listen. On a first, mildly distracted run-through, I thought to myself, ‘well, here we go. Bay Area revivalism. It was bound to happen, but this sound was done to perfection in the 80s, why bother?’ On my second listen, several songs, notably the menacing, epic-sounding ‘Man Against Machine’ and the gladiatorial musings of  ‘We Who Are About To Die’, stood out and convinced me that, yes, there was some point to all this. I also liked the soloing – fast, furious and just technical enough to pass muster by 80s thrash standards. Also, with Flemming Rasmussen at the board, the sound is everything you’d want from a thrash album. And then on a third listen, I started having doubts again. Classic Exodus, Slayer, Artillery, and Death Angel are definitely influences here, and that’s all to the good. But how much is this album really worth if you already have Bonded By Blood and Reign In Blood in your collection, that is to say, if you’re a metalhead with a modicum of taste, sanity and a sense of the history of the genre?

Well, that’s a hard question to answer. And it may be an unfair one, as well. It would be cynical to accuse the new crop of thrash revivalists of hopping on a bandwagon just because it’s suddenly becoming trendy – I know that every time I spin those old 80s albums I get a supercharge and wonder why they don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Can’t blame these fellows for thinking the same and suiting action to thought. Also, stacking a young band’s first album against classics of the genre is a loaded comparison if there ever was one.

The point is, this is a decent crop of songs that genuinely evoke the spirit of old school thrash. Where the themes or the format seem regurgitated or limited (the vocals on ‘Burned Alive’ sound a little too much like the singer is channeling Tom Araya – you could easily sing the opening verse on ‘Angel Of Death’ to his vocal lines here), I think it’s important to remember that they are working in a style which itself worked best within certain specific parameters, to be honest. The songwriting and musical ability on display here suggest that they’ll only get better. Anyway, sometimes branching out can be a bad thing – I’d prefer hearing a Bay Area clone band like this bashing it out with real conviction than listen to some of the more egregious dinosaurs of the original movement penning mindless paeans to pro wrestling and computer games, duking it out with female power metal vocalists on AoR versions of their more commercial songs, or resorting to nu-metal levels of musical under-development and replacing snares with what sound like collapsible steel chairs to sound hard again.

This album won’t replace anyone’s timeworn stash of thrash classics – but it will serve as a good, crunchy snack in between main courses, and an aperitif for further destruction from Evile. Yes, I just jammed in a Richard Cheese reference there. I’m so smug, you should sue me.

Year of Release: 2007

Label: Earache