Red Death - 2014 demo

Crossover-tastic.

Might be slightly more on the hardcore side as some of the riffs remind me something like Knife Fight. Still plenty of wailing guitar solos and thrashing and moshing though.

Definitely kind of Power Trip quality rather than that post-Municipal Waste trend.

Noisem - Agony Defined (A389)

Was put off by the name a bit I must confess. Made me think of average mid-noughties vaguely tech euro grind on sub-Relapse labels for some reason.

Thankfully it's an awesome blast of Slayer/Exodus style thrash metal. Just 9, short & too the point songs so it doesn't out stay it's welcome. Just listened to it twice and it's a perfect instant hit of wailing guitar solos and mosh riffs and general thrashing.

You can immediately hear it's top tier stuff that's more than just a bit of retro-pastiche. Bang on.

Power Trip - Manifest Decimation (Southern Lord)

Boomkat sort out FLAC for Southern Lord in the UK so go here for when it's released early next month - http://boomkat.com/search?q=southern%20lord&fields%5B%5D=

Or else, Southern Lord might put it up on their bandcamp

This is, quite possibly, the best crossover thrash revival album that's been made. If you told me it was a long lost album from the mid-80s I'd be inclined to believe you.

Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Cro Mags, Hirax and so on.

Municipal Waste seemed to kickstart the thrash revival and since then there's been tons of fairly mediocre bands floating about. Even the best bands just sounded like mere pastiche.

Power Trip don't fall into that trap though. They've cracked it. They've made a crossover album that is genuinely as good as the original 80s stuff.

The Royal Arch Blaspheme - II

This is as filthy, necro, satanic, ugly, thrashy and metal as fuck of a release as you could ever dream of hearing.

After polluting minds and corrupting souls with their self-titled debut album, THE ROYAL ARCH BLASPHEME return to wage war on the holy with the cryptic “II.” Once again the vision of PROFANATICA guitarist/songwriter John Gelso and KRIEG mastermind N. Imperial but now expanded into a full lineup, THE ROYAL ARCH BLASPHEME's highly anticipated "II" expands upon ideas from their original template: the primitivism is cruder, the sludge more volcanic, the blasphemy more vile, the production fuller and more devastating. What results is sickened (and sickening) miasma of black metal filth that only THE ROYAL ARCH BLASPHEME can create... bow down in obeisance.

Pay Homage and Worship!
 

Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines Of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm

Everything about this release rules! The artwork rules, the riffs rule, the titles rule, and, my favourite of all, the vocals utterly rule! This is Thrash/Black Metal supremacy right here. This was probably my favourite metal release of last year so go listen. Also check out the other great stuff Hells Headbangers have on their Bandcamp as it's dripping with leather-clad thrash-metal goodness.

INQUISITION, possessors of one of the most distinctive black metal sounds around, returns after a ominious, three-year slumber in the stygian depths with their highly anticipated fifth album, "Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrososm." Revolving, as always, around the core duo of vocalist/guitarist Dagon and drummer Incubus, INQUISITION create fog-thick, utterly mesmerizing blackness with only two instruments and voice. "Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm," amongst a discography already lined with classics, evokes blackest magick and esoteric mysticism, inducing trance-like states in even the sturdiest constitution - hail the "Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm"! Recommended for worshippers of INQUISITION, because no one else sounds like INQUISITION.