So just how did Scandinavia, all tucked away up there, manage to gain such an enormous reputation with regards to Heavy Metal? Surely there are multiple studies, observations, dissertations, and other such academia to explain it, and yet, much like a car's engine, most of us don't know exactly how it works, we just know that it works, and we all love stuff that works properly.

From the Metal Mecca of Sweden comes the Thrash Metal trio WARFECT with their fourth full-length album, "Spectre of Devastation". Having built a reputation for playing a classic style of Thrash may put them off to some, but this album completes a solid foundation, and is a step up from 2016's "Scavengers". The phrases "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and "Consistency is key" come together nicely in regards to this band's description.

The band cites such Heavy Metal luminaries as SLAYER, JUDAS PRIEST, and SEPULTURA as influences, and that much is obvious over any twenty second span on track two, "Pestilence". That recipe does just as well for the next track, "Rat King", which also contains an excellent vintage bass breakdown about halfway through. "Left To Rot", one of the album's six-minute heavyweights, has room to stretch out and it does, experimenting with tempo in ways that had not yet been explored here.

After that comes the album's shortest (excluding the eponymous intro), "Hail Caesar", a pleasant type of crowd-pleaser that will probably do just that when live shows happen again. "Into The Fray" follows that up by amping up the aggression, making for an angry tune which tells its own tale. "Colossal Terror", the album's other six-minute track, really harkens to the golden days of Thrash while even getting in a little taste of BATHORY.

Things get faster on "Witch Burner", a standout headbanging track even on an album full of them. For the closer, "Dawn Of The Red", the band opts for a late salvo, waiting until about the last minute of the song to ramp the speed back up and even throws in some cannon fire for good measure before it ends without ceremony.

There is a lot to like about "Spectre Of Devastation". Where the first few albums sound like some talented guys having fun with their instruments, this one feels like a polished piece of professional architecture. Even so, it does not feel at all like a nadir; WARFECT has clearly found the sound they were looking for, so now they can only stand to go upwards.

And upwards is where they need to go. While it would be unfair to say they were holding back, it still doesn't feel like they put it all out there for this one. There's plenty of blood and sweat but where are the tears? WARFECT needs just a little bit more to really get ahead of the modern Thrash crowd, and we'll know if they've found it on album five.