My colleague and esteemed bossman Scott Adams quite liked Terrifier‘s last album, the excellently-named Weapons of Thrash Destruction from 2017. I wasn’t so sure, with the band’s obvious love for Bonded By Blood eventually becoming a bit of a sticking point for me if we’re being honest.

Six years later, not much has changed; Bones of the Slain is a major rager here, and it absolutely slays with it’s dead-eyed dedication to mid to late eighties metal thrashing madness. Best track Depths Of The Storm Sceptre moves the band into slightly more ‘modern’ territory – Overkill wouldn’t have turned their nose up at the track for use on their new album – but for the most part this new album finds things pretty much business as usual for these natives of Kelowna, British Colombia. Of course that means the solos – every last one of them – are all present and correct – and every last one is a winner with guitarist Rene Wilkinson again proving himself to be perhaps the greatest ‘unknown’ soloist currently doing the thrash metal rounds. He’s no slouch with the chug either, obviously – but it’s his soloing that continually amazes here.

Bassist Chris Thibodeau also sings, you’ll remember, and here he lays on his (admittedly familiar) chops with absolute, all round commitment. His performance on final track Awaiting Desecration is ear-gouging thrash vocalising at it’s finest, make no mistake.

So in the final washup what we have here is a trio of fine musicians – the band is rounded out by drummer Kyle Sheppard, who predictably also gives some superb performances here – whose obvious love for the music they play shines through time and again. It’s just a shame that for the most part somebody else got there first in terms of structure and arrangement, which ultimately means that, though TTW,DTD – Ed Repka sleeve and all – is a hugely enjoyable listen that’ll have you rooting out your old white hitops the minute needle hits vinyl, it also makes the listener wish that these guys would put their undoubted talent into something just a little more original. They have the talent to make something very special indeed, that’s for sure…

Trample The Weak, Devour The Dead releases on May 23rd