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With an album title like Old School Killspree, one doesn't really expect any sort of gospel music played by a bunch of pretty boys and/or girls, right?

The Hirvi (which translates to The Moose) were among those in the first wave of Finnish Speed and Thrash Metal bands in the second half of the 80s, but disbanded way too soon, leaving just one 3-track demo gathering dust for the years to come. Fortunately, the band gathered their troops back together again 26 years later, in 2017, and started making some new noise again.

This 8-track album reintroduces a band that sound as if they had never fallen apart some 30 years ago. The band's attempt to make unique, unorthodox and progressive Thrash Metal is still their strong asset. The Hirvi don't sound like your ordinary Thrash Metal band; they have always chosen to go their own path, displaying a playful approach with a tendency to combine elements from the progressive side of metal into their own sound, which has worked for them very well over time. Take for example the song "The Hirvi." It starts off like some danceable country song before turning into Doom Metal in a split second before finally bursting out with all of its packed energy like thousands of vicious thunderbolts. Or how about "Dance, Dance, Dance?" Doesn't sound much like a Thrash Metal song title, does it? In fact, while being the album's longest song at nearly eight minutes, it's also one of the album's most stunning and ambitious works, containing basically all of the known elements of which the band's sound is made of: progressiveness, sheer aggression, uncompromising heaviness, and pure and honest ambition, executed in the one and only The Hirvi fashion. Let's not forget mastermind Juha Virtanen's absolutely deranged vocal style, which has become one of the trademarks of the band's sound. He sounds like an exorcist trying to beat the demons out of Mille Petrozza's soul, with some destructive results. Also, I for one am very glad that the band's instant hit demo song from the old days, "Killer Instinct" made it on this album.

The Hirvi are back with a very solid album that doesn't follow any retro-Thrash trends and sounds like nothing else.