Thrash Metal and Death Metal, two of the most common subgenres of Extreme Metal, are usually depicted as two separate genres.  However, for decades, some bands have become famous for playing a mixture of thrash and death metal.  Two such examples are the Brazilian metal giants SEPULTURA and American extreme metal band SKELETONWITCH.  If you're a fan of those bands or others with a similar style, then you might want to add another group to your list: TERRANOCT of Akron, Ohio.  Formed in 2016, TERRANOCT has mainly showed off a thrash metal sound heavily laced with death metal.  Over the course of their existence, the band has released four singles: "Cast in Stone" in 2017, "Heresy" and "Blighted Body" in 2021, and "Spheres of Madness" just last year.  Although the band's bassist Sam Vang departed in 2020, this did not stop the rest of the group from reaching a major milestone in their career.  On April 28th of this year, TERRANOCT independently released their debut album "Icon of Ruin." Filled with 11 apocalyptic-themed songs and thoroughly pummeling instrumentals, this 63-minute-long album delivers a powerful punch from both the thrash and death metal genres.

Before I begin talking about individual tracks from the album, I want to take a moment to appreciate the band's sound.  From beginning to end, the instrumental is a perfect mixture of thrash metal-style guitar riffs, fast percussion, and intense blast beats so commonplace in death metal.  Ricky Lewis and Tyler O'Brien's vocals lean more towards the death metal style but are nonetheless amazing.  The combination of guttural growls and bone-chilling shrieks reminded me a lot of the widely polarized deathcore genre, but without the frequent breakdowns.  Some people might say the shrieks are more reminiscent of black metal, and they wouldn't be wrong.  Despite all of this, it can't be overlooked that due to Sam Vang's departure from TERRANOCT'S lineup, there are no audible bass riffs anywhere on the album.  I found this slightly disappointing, as bassists are quite essential in thrash metal and death metal.  However, this unfortunate absence doesn't seem to affect the intensity of "Icon of Ruin," let alone the guitar skills of Ricky Lewis and Rickie Palmer.

The first track of the album "Meridian" is purely an instrumental track, which may come as a surprise to listeners, as it was to me.  The lack of lyrics, however, doesn't cancel out the thrash/death metal style of the instrumental.  After the somewhat easy going instrumental track, TERRANOCT go full throttle onwards starting with the second song "Omnipotence." Dan Paddy's drumming in most of the album's tracks was very similar, but he manages to change his style in each song so as to not make it too predictable.  The same observation applies to O'Brien and Palmer's guitar work.  Other than expected breaks in between tracks, TERRANOCT doesn't leave much time for their listeners to process the music, as the band goes full speed ahead from start to finish.  Needless to say, they go out with a bang on their final song "Cerebral Strangulation."

"Icon of Ruin" is a huge milestone in the four-piece group's career, and they did not hold back whatsoever.  It was a flawless balance of thrash metal and death metal, with neither outdoing one another.  At this point, it's worth noting that despite existing for 7 years in the metal scene, TERRANOCT still remains unsigned to an official record label.  Their debut album was independently produced and released, particularly due to mixing/mastering talents of drummer Dan Paddy.  However, with the amazing way the music sounds, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  The band might hopefully find a record label soon, but "Icon of Ruin" has put them in a good spot for now.  At the end of the day, this masterpiece is definitely worth a fully attentive, unbiased listen by any fan of thrash and/or death metal.