I'm going to say it right now: HI-GH is a fucking cool band.

These Italian Thrash/Speed/Punk/Whatever-you-want-to-call-them metallers began their journey in 2012. One EP and debut full-length later, we have "Till Death and After" in 2014. The funny thing about this band, is the excitement at first listen. It's not often I get to experience metal like this, that carries the same kind of vibe. Mash up DESTRUCTION with CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, up the tempo a couple of notches.

Following a rather strange intro, the title track weens us into the music with a lovely 3-minute taster. If anything, they're a proper Speed Metal act at heart, and this track is here to show it; frantic, classic Thrash riffs are played at ridiculous tempos, with memorable melody and chord progressions. I was rather surprised by the production quality, too; oftentimes I'll hear "new old Thrash", and it sounds like a muddy, hodge-podge mess; but the studio work put into this album is stellar; meat-and-potatoes, no frills, excellent tones all-round. This is especially evident in "Sex Machine", which features an extensive display of the band's repertoire as musicians; groovy, Hard Rock one minute; IRON MAIDEN-esque NWOBHM riffs the next, before we're assaulted with an epic arrangements of melodies and cutting-edge bass lines, and back to a cannon-firing of delectable Thrash. Definitely one of the more melodic and memorable tracks on the album.

"Born Under Evil Defiance" becomes one of the Thrashier pieces on the record; something I would not expect after the bleedingly-obvious NWOBHM influences in the introductory riffs; gallops and harmonized guitar-melodies galore. Further listening pops a blister that oozes with heavy, chuggy, aggressive riffing, not too reminiscent of later MEGADETH (the GOOD later) albums; ENDGAME comes to mind. "Deal of Death", at times, features some of the album's fastest playing, but also contains some of the album's best riffs, treading that thin sweet-spot between heaviness and memorability, the arrangement is truly stellar.

This is one vinyl I will be on the hunt for; it's refreshing to see new, young Thrash bands paying homages to other genres that undoubtedly shaped the scene, but I can't help but thinking this band could be revolutionary.