Salt Lake City denizens Deathblow push all the right crossover buttons with their new album, Insect Politics. Bringing a brain-curdling grab bag of old-school thrash influences to the table, the thirty five minute duration of this record will have old thrashers wiping a nostalgic tear from the eye whilst their younger counterparts set about destroying the immediate vicinity of the stereo in a maelstrom of flailing limbs.

Time and again, names like D.R.I., Sacred Reich and Cryptic Slaughter will flash across the consciousness as you listen, especially on out-and-out rippers like the superb Nefarious Ends. The title track features some absolutely textbook thrash drumming from the excellently-named Grob, with the track itself displaying a bit of a VoiVod vibe; This is a band that clearly has an immaculately curated record collection if nothing else!

Vocalist Holger the Horrible has a fantastic voice for this sort of thing; Four parts Kurt Brecht to one part Mille Petrozza, he’s perfected the ideal crossover throat attack, lurking at the crossroads where punk outrage and metal menace meet up and share a cigarette; it’s a classic sound for sure, but it loses no impact at all for all that.

He’s no slouch as a guitarist either, sharing a nice partnership with Smelltron, whilst Grob holds down the bottom end with bassist Paul with ruthless efficiency and no little flair when either is called upon to shine.

If crossover ain’t your thing, it’s hard to convey just how much fun you’ll have listening to tracks like Convert or Die!; If, however, you still have the chutzpah to parade around in a crusty old battle jacket adorned with patches celebrating the existence of names like Crumbsuckers and The Accüsed, then it’s hard to imagine that you’ll be able to resist the delights that reside inside the grooves of Insect Politics. Thrash ’til death!

Insect Politics is out now.