A new-ish thrash band out of Quebec City, Canada, Pit Striker are pretty transparent with that logo and the artwork and name of their debut EP Happy Thrash Friends: you have a pretty good idea what to expect if you see that in a store. This is "clean" thrash rooted in the mid-80s U.S. schools, mostly the Bay Area but with harsher vocals and a harder edge that borrows a little from East Coast thrash and even a hint of the German school as well. There, how's that for a quick plane trip. I was expecting this to be more of the "party thrash" variety because of the name of the EP, but Happy Thrash Friends has a more serious and darker vibe to it. This stuff is fast, pounding and heavy throughout and you don't need to turn that volume knob too high to get the walls shaking. Some of the guitar work reminds me a little bit of very early Metallica (before the suck), especially some of the solos that made me fuck up my wrist while air guitaring along (reviewing albums is dangerous business). Pit Striker aren't inventing anything here (inventing something in thrash means adding dumb gimmicks most of the time, so that's good), but they mixed their old school influences very well and there's a tiny modern edge that makes it so it doesn't sound too old school nor does it sound like a mere copy. A very strong debut EP (at 30 minutes, many bands would call that an album), and a high bar for whatever they'll follow this up with.