Prophets from the Occultic Cosmos is the debut album from Finland's Excuse and follows a number of shorter releases. They play an early flavor of thrash from the time when that subgenre was splitting from the "heavy metal" heard in the U.S. and U.K. in the early '80s. The vocals are evil howls soaked in echo and not far removed from some of the early "extreme" vocalists like Cronos or Quorthon and they suit the music well. Early cuts on the album like "Black Crystal Visions" and "Blade of Antichrist" have a traditional metal sound with clear riffs and melodic, Maiden-esque solos, while at the back of the album Excuse delves more into staccato thrashing but it all sounds good to these ears. Excuse aren't necessarily breaking new ground, but they do mix things up enough to give their music a freshness not often heard these days. Prophets from the Occultic Cosmos is a fine debut.