Hailing from Hungary and featuring members of such underground bastions of kvltness as Ahriman and Hexenwood, Morbid Carnage are all about thrashing. From the moment that the riffs start riffing in opener Warlust, it’s immediately obvious that the band’s raison d’être is to be as faithful as possible to the classic works of Kreator and Sodom, high-pitched vocals shrieking out over a deep guitar tone seemingly designed to make a fresh bounty of patches sprout out of your denim jacket like mushrooms on dung. It’s interesting to note that the band chose to create a shortish album with fewer, longer tracks rather than many sloppy shorter songs, and as a result the crushing sub-Sepulturan grooves of Slaughtering are well-played and the ensuing wild soloing verges on the technical. So serious thrash, for serious people? Actually, more than you know; a closer look at the cover art shows that it features black-clad metal thugs beating up purple-clad emo types with girly painted nails and colourful wristbands. They’re presumably the night assassins of the title, going around being violent to keep the streets safe for honest Thrash Metallers. It’s just a bit of friendly fun of course, with no harm or offence meant – that kind of thing would never happen in these modern times where subcultures are good-naturedly tolerated by everyone, as many Mexican emos and the spirit of Sophie Lancaster will doubtless attest.

Still, leaving behind the tastefulness of the situation, it must be said that this is some very good thrash. The juddering chaos of Funeral Pyre, the wailing madness of Deviant (starting with a solo, whatever next!) and the seven-minute cascading fury of Castle In Pain are more than enough reasons to hunt this down, slamming piles of Thrash glory that will damage your neck more than several car crashes in a row. It’s hardly original, and should have been shorter – 36 minutes is too long, it gets a bit repetitive towards the end – but it is well-played and enjoyable for what it is. And besides, whoever said Thrash Metal had to be tasteful, before all the posers in the forum start insulting me for the connection made between the depiction of people being beaten up for their subculture and people who have actually been beaten up (and worse) for their subcultures? I could make a joke about how if you don’t have any taste be sure to listen to this, but that would be unfair to Thrash, its fans, the band, and myself. I did genuinely enjoy everything about Night Assassins except the artwork, and wholeheartedly recommend it to any Thrasher looking for new meat. Musically, it’s clear that Morbid Carnage have very good taste indeed, and that’s ultimately what matters.