Holland’s Thanatos is back this year with only their fifth album in close to twenty five years of existence. The band started out in 1984 as probably the first extreme metal band from Holland and from then to now has steadily built itself a reputation for kicking ass.

Justified Genocide sees the band continue to do what they do best. This is ass kicking death thrash that has old school written all over it. No Swedish melodies, breakdowns or anything remotely trendy for this lot. The band write thrash metal songs like they always did and while the mix may have become a little more rabid with a slight injection of death metal into their sound its only a good thing. Right from album opener They Feed on Fear it’s pretty clear that Thanatos is in fine form. Equal parts German thrash, Bay Area thrash and just a slight touch of the Stockholm death metal sound means Justified Genocide is angry, rabid and brutal enough to kick your ass into next week.

Stand out tracks include Destruction Chaos Creation with a solid thrash groove and wild but vintage thrash soloing, Justified Genocide is another excellent song with some serious Dark Angel worship happening in the riffing. Apostles of Damnation slows things down with a mid tempo groove and great vocals while Upwards Spiritual Evolution is some more rabid thrash. The album ends with a completely awesome cover of Dark Angel’s The Burning of Sodom.

While Thanatos has not done anything new or path breaking on Justified Genocide, they have managed to put together an album that should make most fans of the old school nod their head in approval. This is a fun and very aggressive thrash album that is completely trend free and well worth checking out.

Label - DEITY DOWN RECORDS

Year of Release - 2009