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Sauron says "fuck you!" to all the pretentious fucks out there. With an album title like Thrash Assault, you really get your point out loud and clear, don't you? 80's- tinged old school Thrash Metal is what keeps Sauron going. These three guys from Michigan, USA, thrash their hearts out in a very vicious and hostile way, clearly paying homage to early European releases like Sentence of Death, Endless Pain, Obsessed by Cruelty and the like. They don't forget their American brothers either (early Dark Angel and Slayer, specifically), and bring their Thrash back to the very roots of genre. Small portions of Black Metal can also be heard in their sound, in the way bands like Deströyer 666 or Aura Noir spice up their Thrash attacks.

Planet Metal's reissue of Sauron's debut album was released in 2012 with 6 bonus tracks. Among the bonus cuts is an unmixed version of the instrumental tune "March of the Vandals" that Sauron intended to record for Thrash Assault but skipped when it became apparent the song didn't represent the band the way they originally hoped. It's a very cool song nevertheless, even if it is more melodic sounding than any of the other songs on their debut record. In addition, Sauron's Prepare to Die demo from 2003 can be found in its entirety on this reissue, which includes a cover of Bathory's "The Return of Darkness and Evil." The demo is a nice bonus but sound-wise it's not on par with Thrash Assault.

Whether Thrash Assault is an essential piece of anyone's Thrash collection is really up to you, but I, for one, am glad to have this disc in my music collection. 100% pure, old-school Thrash is what this is.