Antichrist: Sinful Birth (2017)

I have always been open about how much I enjoy thrash metal.  It is likely my favorite metal subgenre, and certainly the one that originally got me into metal.  I have done posts before looking at thrash metal bands from around the world, yet one country's scene has somewhat eluded me all this time.  There are so many genres Swedish metal bands do well, but I have not been able to really discover their thrash metal scene beyond a few bands who do fusion genres or who exist on the borderline between thrash and death metal.  In my Worldwide Thrash Metal post, I mentioned The Crown, who are more of a death/thrash metal band, and Guillotine, a side project.  Then there is The Haunted and Witchery, both of whom have other influences beyond thrash in them.  I just have not really been able to find too many straight thrash metal bands from Sweden yet.

Antichrist is one such band, although since they are relatively new, they are not a great example of what the Swedish thrash metal scene would have originally sounded like.  In fact, it seems to me that Antichrist's major influence is not a Swedish band at all.  There is a lot of Possessed influence here, from the album cover, to the music.  In fact, some tracks sound almost as if they were lifted directly from Seven Churches.

The songs here are generally fast-paced with frenetic, balls-to-the-wall riffs and steamroller drumming.  The drums are probably the highlight here, doing some insane fills and cadences that really capture the listener's attention.  I have long said that the only real times that the drums in metal bands are truly noticed are when they are really fucking good or really fucking bad.  This is definitely the former.  The vocals have the kind of sinister, evil edge to them to fit in quite well with the rest of the music, which captures every bit of the atmosphere of the legendary Possessed album referred to above.

This is an album that kind of slipped by unnoticed a couple of years ago, which is a shame.  Obviously, Antichrist does not really do anything brand new, but their brand of Possessed worship is infectious.  I am looking forward to hearing more, though I still have not really scratched the surface of real Swedish thrash metal yet.