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Legendary L.A. thrashers Evildead released two kickass albums during the dying days of the Golden Age before splitting off to do other things, then reformed for some live shows in 2008 before calling it quits in 2012, and then they reformed again in 2016 for more live shows, only this time they went ahead and started making material for their first album in 29 years along the way. As a fan of the band since their initial run, I was looking forward to this release, but I know damn well how hard it is to make a comeback album that pleases old fans, especially when the band in question hasn't made any new material in almost three decades, so I approached it with some caution. Thankfully, that ended up being unwarranted, because United $tate$ of Anarchy proves the band hasn't lost its touch in that time.

There's always that concern for an album like this to come across as rushed or half-hearted just so the band can say it released another album, but this absolutely isn't the case here. When guitarist Juan Garcia claimed this was going to be a classic Evildead album with strong, catchy tunes, he wasn't bullshitting, as opener "The Descending" can attest. There's nothing modern about this release, and it doesn't make the mistake of trying too hard to recapture past glories, it's just the kind of Bay Area Thrash that only Evildead can make as well as we could reasonably expect at this point, no more, no less. They even pull off a cover of The B-52's "Planet Claire", giving it the Evildead treatment without skipping a beat.

I'd name highlights, but this isn't really that kind of album. It's not trying to impress anyone or live up to classics like Annihilation of Civilization, it's just continuing the Evildead sound as well as anyone could ask for, and no one is happier than me to say it succeeds in doing that. Old fans will be happy with this band returning from the dead, and anyone new can go ahead and just listen to every Evildead album they can find, this one included. If you never liked the band to begin with, however, you best start hiding under your bed with your blanky in hand, because Evildead are back from the grave!