As an admirer of Texan blackened speed thrashers SADISTIC FORCE since their inception in 2021, my dark heart couldn’t delight more at the opportunity to review the band’s sophomore album, “Midnight Assassin”. With the band creating the sort of plump and juicy riffs that fatten your ears up on first listen, and the kind of lethal black ‘n’ roll mix that would come if WITCHERY and MOTÖRHEAD could play side-by-side, SADISTIC FORCE has it all.

The surly attitude of the band’s debut, “Aces Wild” is one that has permeated anyone graced with the pleasure of this divine listening experience; the album’s hell-bent for leather speed, thumpingly palpable percussion, and raw, glass-gurgling vocals made the full-length debut more than memorable, and SADISTIC FORCE got a well-deserved seal of approval within the black thrash realms. These days, the maniacal thrashers are back with a bang and just as resolved on striking your soul with their dirty speed and visceral dynamics. Their steely determination pulsates in the initial d-beat of “Corpsewood Curse” and the genre’s compulsory ‘oughs’ are as ripe as a seven-day corpse in the process of decay to commandeer the filth and savagery that ensues perfectly. The epitome of the band’s spirited, hellish ways blast out unapologetically in “Black Leather Hell” in a fiery black ‘n’ roll display, with a more blackened orchestration awaiting in “Midnight Assassin” with its unforgiving blast attacks and mayhemic interventions.

Now, if you love yourself a bit of MOTÖRHEAD – as is the case with most hard and fast metal gluttons – you’ll enjoy the free and easy, giver of zero nothings attitude of “Nuremberg Nights” with its ode to the iconic masters of surly, curled-lipped rock ‘n’ roll. Its loud, fast, and downright vicious snapping will get you pumped up (which you really should have something akin to roid-rage at this point of “Midnight Assassin” anyway), with its nasty neighbour, “The Butcher’s Apron”, offering an outlet for any brewing rage you’ve amassed with a crust punk undertone and sweeping blackness. With the hammer hurling down in “Marked for Death”, you can be sure to enjoy the heady, aggressive flavours SADISTIC FORCE have perfected with the irresistible combination of earworm riffs and gravelly vocals rooting deep inside of you. “Campaign of Sin” takes the album into a contrastingly slower territory, which puts a few bumps in the trajectory, although “Howl of the Horde” picks up where “Marked for Death” left off.

“Midnight Assassin” isn’t a vanity project, nor is it a sonic cock-measuring contest. It’s a simplistic riff-centric offering of good, solid hard and heavy, bloody, blackened thrash metal: no more, no less. The fact that SADISTIC FORCE keep it uncomplicated and, to an extent predictable, allows for plenty of opportunity to enjoy well-crafted black ‘n’ roll unapologetically. Although “Midnight Assassin” isn’t as strong as its predecessor if they stood shoulder-to-shoulder, it’s nonetheless a rock-hard offering of good quality blackened thrash destined to be gobbled up by many a black ‘n’ roll fanatic.