American youngsters Executionist display an admirable DIT attitude, writing, producing and releasing their new album fully under their own imprimatur and with a fierce independence glinting in their collective eye.

The music they’ve come up with ain’t bad, either; Although the press release that comes with the record promises delights in the region of Kreator and Children of Bodom they actually do manage to change things up a little over the course of Sacrament of the Sick, although Kreator are obviously a massive reference point for the band.

That’s no bad thing of course, and I’ve a sneaking suspicion Herr Petrozza himself would be quite happy to put his name to hoarse-throated rabble rouser Divided We Stand… United We Fall. There’s plenty more where that came from, with the band showing songwriting smarts beyond their years on other highlight efforts like the well-arranged Thy Kingdom Come; In fact, a few more workmanlike moments aside, what stands out most about Executionist is their maturity. Not in some sort of Poindexterish way, but more in the way they’ve managed to come up with something that many bigger ‘industry names’ might struggle to live with on a level playing field.

Brett Ash and Mike Kinder certainly know how to riff up a storm – in fact the whole band have technical proficiency badges coming out of every orifice, a fact signalled best on the instrumental second half of Thy Kingdom Come, where drummer Tristan Ash and bassist Austin Rose come to the party big time to create a groovy, proggy riot of musicianship that’s going to be resident on my death deck for some time to come…

Whilst there’s still obviously a lot of improvement to come, it’s difficult to see how Executionist could have done any better with this album, and as such it comes highly recommended for fans of no-nonsense thrash supremacy everywhere!