Hot on the heels of the new Hydra Vein album, Lancastrian veterans Xentrix are here with another slice of rampant Brit thrash! Break out the hi-tops and skate shorts!

Joking aside, however, it has to be said that Xentrix have done the business in fine style on Seven Words, their second album since getting back together ten years ago. In tandem with mixmaster Andy Sneap they’ve created a gargantuan old-school thrash sound on tracks like Spit Coin and Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead that won’t fail to transport you back to thrash glory days with a sound that sits somewhere between Among The Living and The Black Album; The good news though is that, whilst certainly bringing to mind those two great albums, Seven Words never merely apes them. This is seriously great heavy metal in it’s own right, make no mistake!

Kristian ‘Stan’ Havard and Denis Gasser, on lead guitar and drums respectively, survive from the old days, augmented by rhythm axe/singer Jay Walsh and bassist Chris Shires, all of whom acquit themselves well throughout. As a unit they are tight and polished, banging out riff-heavy nuggets of melodic thrash like Ghost Tape Number Ten with fluidity and panache. This is music that offers no surprises in 2022, obviously, but there’s a spring in the step of the band here that adds an infectious irresistibility to everything on offer. And if a mile-wide-smile doesn’t appear on your lips as you skank around your living room to the Slayeresque mid-section of …Tape, well – let’s just say you ain’t the die hard thrasher I thought you were…

This being an old-school thrash album there’s a classic rock cover, natch – this time Alice Cooper‘s Billion Dollar Babies is put through the ringer, with pleasing results, as it goes – but the stark truth of the matter is that Xentrix don’t need other people’s music to make them sound great – they are managing to do that perfectly well on their own, thanks very much!

As the old Shades ads used to say in the back of kerrang! – buy or die!

Seven Words releases on November 11th.