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I came across this band at a show last summer and I've been meaning to review this album ever since. Now, I'm a bit more critical of this one because I've also heard their upcoming album, Warlust, which kind of leaves this one here in the dust—not that Ancient Scriptures is bad, mind you.

This independent release suffers mostly from the production which hampers their sound quite a bit and you can just feel the songs being held down. Now that that's out of the way... Black Mass thrash pretty hard, mixing mid to fast-paced thrash rather expertly and there are several songs here that are instantly memorable, most of all "Black Mass" which is by far my favourite song on this album. It rocks hard and it's fun. The vocals are a bit on the harsh side but not too much, which should make the album more accessible to those who are more into "clean thrash" and balk at the more extreme thrash out there these days. And some of those guitar solos... Man, get me my air guitar. There's a bit of Dave Mustaine in his best years in there, so there's a bit of a throwback vibe to boot.