Thanatos - Justified Genocide

84%

So here it finally is. The fifth Thanatos album. It took these Dutch veterans six years, but mostly due to label problems and other unforseen circumstances, so I think we might be able to forgive them for that. With some time off in between in the 90's this also marks Thanatos' 25th annniversary, so even more reasons to celebrate. Let's start with saying that they certainly never sounded better. The album was recorded at Excess Studios in Rotterdam and mixed by the legendary Dan Swanö, and it makes up for a great display of raw death-thrash blasting through your speakers in great aural quality.

And when I say death-thrash, I don't mean the Swedish sound which is so prominent in the scene these days. This is pure old-school death with a healthy dose of bay-area thrash and speed-metal to boot. The two covers on this album (Massacres 'Dawn Of Eternity' and Dark Angels 'The Burning Of Sodom') illustrate nicely where Thanatos comes from. It's nice to see and hear of course that the old guard can still kick some serious ass and step on the gas like there's no tomorrow.
So while I'm not really hearing any new things, this album is Thanatos at its best. Furious death-thrash, masterfully executed, great sounding and with some good songs. I'm not hearing any classics though and that's maybe my only gripe.
Every great death-metal record has a certain amount of 'catchiness' to it with a few defining riffs and I'm not really hearing those here, except for maybe the Morbid Angel-ish main riff in 'Upwards Spirtual Evolution'. Everything mostly blazes by in a classic chaotic manner.
That said, this is a classic display of a style of death-metal which has been gone for too long if you ask me. So if you're looking for some great sounding classic death-thrash, this is an album you need to get. It's bound to get some heads banging.