Avenger of Evil - Spawn Of Evil [2012]

Avenger of Blood has existed since 10 years, boosting the retro-thrash revival with two cadaverous full-lengths and bunch of demos that adorn their discography, but really, over the last 2-3 years, the rehashing of old school thrash has become highly redundant (not unlike the current old school death metal revival), and when I first glanced at the cover, and impish zombie unveiling the gruesome skeletal complex of another zombie, buried under a heaving slob of flesh, I had no doubts that the group, after a number of lineup changes, was only formulating a similar messy thrash outing, and like many of my predictions these days, the Las Vegas quartet's most recent EP ''Spawn Of Evil'' turned out to be what I fancied it would be. Even when  the band exchanges two old gears for two new ones their entire ideology of corpulence stays pretty much the same, a vicious paroxysm of primal death/thrash that despite embracing the whole ''old school or no school'' dogma, does no shy from benefiting from the booming amplification of the modern studio.

If I had to string some influences together I'd say they were enveloping themselves in more grime than their previous release, meaning that they take the brutal speed/thrash edge to a fairly new level, distorting it with even messier guitars, Venom, Possessed and some similar black/thrash tendencies biased into a more modern slew of boiling, vigorous Bay-Area fundamentals, but the band doesn't entirely jilt European influences; I still hear a heavy dose of the strong Kreator and Sodom worshiping which was prevalent on ''Death Brigade'' too. ''Spawn of Evil'' has a marginally different twist than the sophomore, though. The material here is definitely more pensive and the onslaught of riffs come in a surprising variety of textures, as there's a smashing, interacting maw of carnality punctuated inside typical speed/thrash progressions which makes for plenty of substance, and they tend the exorcise their speed/thrash cursor into a jagged chugging feast; undeniably induced by melodic death/thrash thrusts akin to Warbringer on the last two discs, Lazarus A.D., Invection, and maybe even Skeletonwitch when the frenzied, blood-soaked vocals are taken into account.

In spite of the generic approach we've witnessed a myriad of times before, Avenger of Blood are certainly one of the more prominent and efficient retro-thrash acts out there; their range of influences diving deeper into black and death metal at the same time than many of their kin and modernizing the cliche only by a margin so that purists are not only thrown into a rhythmic, violent vortex of nostalgia, but also behold the sheer intensity in more extensive levels. And that's the only thing the group wishes to achieve. To rekindle and already blazing memory and fill the mosh-room with pure, unadulterated thrash that was made to splinter necks. Not a novelty, but delicious prize of razing, antique ebullition for purists.

Highlights:
Centuries Of Hell
Spawn Of Evil
Aggressive Psychotic Behavior

Rating: 76%