With the huge amount of releases coming out recently and with the economy in pieces now is a time when you have to spend your money carefully, so think about what you could want in a new release? How about lyrics revolving around summer time and pansy melodies that make your grandmother swoon? No I didn't think so. How about riffs that blast your eardrums and make you beg for mercy? Tempos that are so intense you book yourself an appointment with a chiropractor cause you know you are gonna hurt your back and neck after thrashing along?

Well then you have come to the right place, this is LAZARUS A.D.'s debut release The Onslaught, and it is one hell of a debut onto the Thrash scene.

The first striking thing about the album is the superb production. As soon as the first riff kicks in everything sounds brilliant, the drums sound heavy as hell and the vocals manage to keep a strong level of clarity while still sounding as raw and intense as they were indented, something that is usually a trade off on modern releases.

I think the remarkable thing about The Onslaught is how fresh everything feels; the song structure is pretty much your generic Thrash structure but the riffs are wound together so well that you don't really notice. The guitarists need to be praised as they have done a stand up job, the level of skill on show from these young guitarists is immense and overall I think this is what makes this release not sound like something from the 80's but finally a glimpse at what the future of Thrash is. Songs like Last Breath and Absolute Power have an intensity not found in the thrash release from the 80's, which as we come into our 6th year of the main revival, it is about time a band brought something new (but faithful to the Thrash ideals) to the table.

The vocals take the harsh sounding route, which adds a bit of brutality to the overall feel of the music. They bare a strong resemblance to Sy Keeler (singer in the legendary UK Thrash band ONSLAUGHT) to my ears, which is by no means a bad thing.

If you really do still need convincing then all I can say is: you do want this album…no, you need this album.  It has everything that you could want: fast guitars, kick ass breakdowns, solos that shred but retain a melody and heavy as hell everything else…seriously, when you have finished reading this, go and buy it. LAZARUS A.D. have managed to retain enough of the classic Thrash elements to make you feel at home while listening - but they inject a real breath of new life into an old and dying genre.

If this is what we can expect from all Thrash releases in the coming years, then we are in for one hell of a ride!