It's been seven years since the band's last full-length effort, but Sweden's SANCTRUM have been busy in the meantime, touring and writing for their new album. Their work comes to fruition in 2015's "Rot."

The band identify themselves with the Thrash and Hardcore genres, and while there's certainly plenty of each to be found on "Rot," the record is notable for combining influences from across the Extreme Metal genre in the quest to shatter bones, eardrums...really anything not substantial enough to whether the band's chaotic onslaught. While the pace isn't quite as fast, you can hear bits of the suffocating, layered intensity of bands like AVERSION'S CROWN on songs like "Thousand Lies" and "Above Us All." On the other hand, the chorus to "Painting the River Red" has a furious, spitting animosity that reminds slightly of PSYCROPTIC, as do the occasional spurts of dancing, fleet-fingered riffing that are scattered throughout the album like a dangerous yet inviting spice, to be enjoyed but not overindulged in.

Other tracks are very aggressive and thrashy, but it's definitely not your daddy's happy-go-lucky, beer guzzling Thrash of yesteryear. Guitarists Alex Tollin and Viktor Arfwedson are fairly liberal at times in their employment of atmospheric riffing that gives magnifies and intensifies some of the songs' heavier moments without being too theatrical or having to resort to ambient effects. Irfan Cancar has a good voice for this music, with anguished screams that sound like those of someone forced to walk on burning coals, though it would have been cool to see him get a little more varied in his approach, especially as the album moves towards its conclusion. "The Ritual" is one such example that comes to mind, with its epic scope and a building of momentum that falls in a crescendo upon the awaiting listener in its chorus.

"Rot" is a solid blend of all things heavy and brutal that never loses sight of its established sonic identity. While I personally would like to see some more variety from them in the future, this newest release from SANCTRUM is sure to cause some damage wherever it's played, which is, really, all any band can really hope for.