Formed in 2016 by childhood friends Afiq and Amirul, KRUSNIX are a Thrash Metal band based in Singapore, and this "The Constitutional Sacrifice" follows up the 2016 two track EP "Spill Your Blood" and represents their first full length release. This is an independent release, which makes the high quality of the recording and production more impressive.

The album opens with the title track "The Constitutional Sacrifice," the initial guitar riff instantly recalls the sound of the mid 80s Bay Area Thrash, although the piece quickly takes on a crisper sounding, modern approach. While the expected religious imagery and fantastical content can be found scattered throughout the lyrics on the LP, this one feels very real. "Chemical, Racial and Mental Warfare, New modern age murder of democracy, No books, no vaccine to cure this disease, The running plague of idiocracy". I do not know exactly which abuse of democracy and human rights this is referring to, let's face it there are a lot to choose from now, but Afiq spits the words out with a venomous fury of a man with a dog in the fight.

In a manner like the previous track, "Spill Your Blood," a reworked song from their debut EP, blasts through multiple different riffs, tempos and breakdowns. Caine Lian's soloing is breathless, and the riffs intertwine and rotate and repeat in a manner that is almost Math Rock-like in its technical wizardry. They really get creatively juicing on the less Thrashy, but no less entertaining "Mangoat," a solidly grooving, foot stomping head-banger in the style of a band like VENOM that clocks in at almost seven minutes. Not a second of this ambitious run-time is wasted on pointless repetition as they rattle through idea after idea, twisting and turning and consistently confounding expectations of what is to come next.

"Zero Live Fire" has one of the best vocals on the album, as Afiq's delivery really takes flight, almost approaching a tune on the choruses but not quite. He has a manner of enunciating that sounds utterly indignant and is imbued with absolutely bags of character. The skills of bassist Syazani Syazwan get a good work out here with some wild Billy Sheehan sounding bass runs that most players would struggle to pull off on a guitar.

"Highway Chase" and "On High Bid" are both exemplary Thrashers, but it is final offering "Krusnified" which really puts the icing on the cake. Clearly the band have named this track thusly as they feel it best sums them up as band and it could be seen as all their finest moments distilled into one piece. It's got absolutely everything you could want out of a Thrash track and is a superb showcase for all their skills, it is also ruthlessly heavy.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, that this is an independent release is quite astounding. They have achieved a level of production that the giants of the genre would be proud of, the delivery of Caine Lian's guitars is absolutely exhilarating and the separation between each instrument makes everything pop out of the stereo at you. Afiq's vocals are brutal, direct, and uncompromising, you never feel anything less than pure wrath pouring out of him, while the rhythm section of Syazani Syazwan and Amirul Arifin are a tightly synchronised, full-on assault of the senses at all times. At just over thirty minutes this album could stand to be a little longer, they might also try and diversify their sound a little, but these guys are still quite young by the look of them. If they keep producing and building on material of this quality, they have a big future ahead of them.