Naming your debut Thrash Assault in the year of 2004 takes some serious guts, as you’re left with no other choice than making it stick. Perfectly. Did I mention that the opening track is called Thrash ‘til Death? That should make Sauron’s mission pretty distinct now shouldn’t it? After roughly 27 intense minutes of head-crushing, neck-snapping and gut-wrenching blackened thrash metal, you’ll get your answer. The title is warranted, this band do not pretend to be evil. They are fucking evil. Welcome to Mordor.

Dirty, sloppy, raw, greasy, nasty yet deliberate are amongst the adjectives that describes this band, and thereby make them sound as evil as the dark lord himself. Black hoofs bursts out of the black gate as the aforementioned Thrash ‘til Death leaves no warning, and unleashes the assault with fast riffs covered in a lovely distorted mud, furiously fast drumming that’ll punish everything still breathing, and a vocalist that’ll rasp you flesh-wounds. For those of you who miss the pitch black old days that Sodom and Kreator in particular dominated, and for those of you who find Deströyer 666 to be one of the best black/thrash acts there being around nowadays, this should give you a serious punch to an already bloodied face. But even though the black metal influence here is undeniable, this well, it thrashes. It thrashes hard, fast and beautifully violent and never lets up. No this isn’t the tightest band around, and yes this sounds like a garage recording done live instead of piece by piece, but who the hell cares? When it brings the wild energy of a blazing raving fire with a rawness and extreme attitude that other newer thrash bands can only dream of, the sloppy production and musicianship is barely noticed. In fact, this isn’t supposed to sound tight or polished. This is supposed to sound evil.

Not taking prisoners nor leaving any survivor on the fierce Witch King, tightening the chokehold with Demonic Invasion and delivering a seemingly finishing move with the rapid title-track, Sauron show us that they will never retreat. The lead-guitar attack led by Victor “Lore Lord” Ruiz on Trash Assault are definitely worth a mention seeing how it slaughters everything in its way. The thrash-break in the end should also provide some serious information to all the shit core-bands around how to do a proper thrash breakdown. Continuing the beastly quest, Sauron slaps in another face-smasher with Unholy Art. The maniacs with the guitars, (even though the bassist could barely be heard at times) provides more of the same manic inspiration to headbang before one of the highlights for me here, Tormentor finishes the show in extreme fashion. Or does it?/p>

Well no, there is actually a flawed yet very cool cover of the all-time Kreator favorite Total Death here, and though the sound is even rawer, or worse if you must, it’s a very cool finisher on a record that should be a must for every thrash, black and even death metal fan roaming the metal underworld. This is one of the very few bands that manage to re-capture some of the black magic that was more or less wiped out some time ago. If you’re going by the old school, this should be of great interest. Thrash Assault is a rare fucking gem that is hidden well, it isn’t easy to find, but if you do manage to dig it up from somewhere, don’t hesitate paying the amount craved. Absofuckinglutely brilliant.