Apostasy: The Sign of Darkness (2018)

Apostasy can trace their origins back to the late 1980's.  The band formed in Chile, which has birthed a few metal bands I thoroughly enjoy, including the terrific Thornafire.  Apostasy released just one full-length album, Sunset of the End, before disbanding.  Guitarist Cris Profaner recently reformed the band, this time taking on bass duties, and this is their first full-length since that reformation.

As a fan of thrash metal worldwide, I was all over an opportunity to hear some good South American-style thrash metal and Apostasy definitely delivers.  This album has the feel of classic Sepultura mixed with some Slayer to it.  The first song definitely has a tempo and style similar to pre-Reign in Blood Slayer.  It is fast, with razor sharp riffs, and often air raid siren vocals.  I kept waiting for him to shriek "Hell Awaits".  The entire album possesses a dark, raw and evil atmosphere carried forward by the sinister riffs and hellish wailing vocals.  Even when they slow things down, there is still a sense of unease building, a sense that nothing is entirely safe.

Apostasy builds on that early promise throughout the album.  This is truly a callback to a time when Slayer was still playing Venom riffs as fast as possible and Sepultura was still shedding their blackened death metal sound.  As that is my favorite era of Slayer's music in particular, I am fully onboard with Apostasy. 

I love this album.  I was always a little more partial to this type of thrash, barely skirting the surface of black metal.  This is exactly the kind of sound I was looking for.