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I have been a fan of this band since their debut album, Evil Unleashed back in 2006. This latest self-titled offering is now their seventh full-length release and quite possibly their best yet. I have watched this band through the years just get better and better and they were already damn good at the beginning of their career.

This album is a Bay Area thrash fan's dream come true. Not to say that all it has to offer is that classic American thrash sound. This has a good mix of modern thrash touches to keep it from sounding dated in any way. The guitars on this album are just absolutely punishing with one killer riff after another and the best solo work of anything they have done to date. The vocals really tie everything together. The shout/yell style is perfectly done, making the lyrics easy to understand and bringing across that thrash metal aggression. The rhythm section also shines with bass that is actually not hidden in the mix and can be picked out throughout the album which isn't always the case in heavier music. The drumming is excellent although, speaking as a drummer myself, Victor Valera is just a little heavy-handed on the cymbal work. That, however, is a personal preference. I just think the album would sound even heavier with a little less focus on the cymbals. The songs overall have a great feel and the whole album flows incredibly well and that 47-minute runtime just flies by. This will be an incredible live show and hopefully we can start having them again soon here in the US.

There is a top 5 or 10 bands in every metal genre that most metalheads can agree on to a certain extent. For example, in thrash we have Death Angel, Exodus, Testament, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction in the upper tier and in the next tier you have Warbringer, Havok, Artillery, Onslaught, Annihilator. I always thought of Angelus Apatrida in the third tier but inching ever so closer to the second. With this album, however, I think they jumped straight to that upper tier. It really is that damn good. The only reason whatsoever I am not giving this a perfect 5/5 score is simply I would absolutely love to see them create a better album than this one. Honestly, they have the talent to pull it off.