With the crown crammed up the yolk-spewing gape of the serpent and all temples burning in the distance the throne to glorious and regal genocidal evil sits emptied, circled by servants and soldiers in labyrinthine formation. A gauntlet of shifting eyes and broken blades surrounds the contested apex that lies ahead and our axe-bearers today appear more than worthy as Stockholm, Sweden-based evil thrash metal trio Atonement might be green in the sense that they’ve only just grown their first daemonic hooves on this debut full-length but that doesn’t stop the whole affair from being a damned world-burner. ‘Sadistic Invaders‘ blasphemes on sight, targeting the weak with fantastic depictions of mayhemic evil and does so while whipping at a very classic strand of early days sinister thrash metal, yanking their best cuts from the rotted womb of extreme metal past. No doubt there’ll be more than a few stabs here that feel familiar in their twist of the knife but there is no denying these folks have their sound, style and attack in proper canonical form as they come bursting out.

Atonement formed circa 2020 between frickin’ kids, or, at least young folks who were wise beyond their years enough to have honed in on the point of advent for extreme metal by way of sinister and aggressive thrash. The difference between a band who show up to copy the halfway-there pretenders today versus those who chip back to the old ways in obsessive study should be blatantly obvious to those who endlessly seek the true blasphemic canon. Simple-yet-effective heavy metal tenets delivered with psychotic shocks of energy is a tougher ask than folks might want to admit and it isn’t but once in a while that the right temperament arrives with key insight beyond brute forced reactivity. when picking up on simple hardcore punk braced rhythms and the body-clenched and teeth gnashing attack that made groups like Sodom, Slayer and Kreator stand out in a still-forming crowd circa 1984. These folks hit their first demo (‘Merciless Blasphemy‘, 2021) clearly aimed at a raw and ruthless equivalent which’d already taken a few steps into the mid-to-late 80’s in terms of aggression and exaggerative maniac grooves.

While the first tape from the group clearly took basic notes from early German thrash metal’s edgier Venom-fanged side ‘Sadistic Invaders‘ takes a step into territory which only a revisionist would consider squarely black/thrash metal. In fact their songwriting and riffcraft may be braced in the anthemic upturns of an album like ‘Endless Pain‘ to start but what develops over the course of the full listen has just as much in common with early death metal demons such as Possessed and we find the ‘Seven Churches‘-braced but Teutonic in flavor pieces (see also: “Unholy Sorcery”) on this LP as early in the running order as “Await the Command”. The bent and ranting riff around ~1:41 minutes into the song is however something different and feels misplaced as a crossover refrain rather than a line back to the main verse riff. When shoved right into the main impact of “Fatal Militia” right after it becomes all the more clear both where Atonement fit in in terms of extreme thrash metal retro-isms but the keen-eared listener might also begin to notice the lack of distinct lead guitar action as the tracks heat up without fully firing off.

The same way you can often pick tweaked Destruction riffs out of most Deathhammer records the dedicated extreme thrash fan will hit upon at least one déjà vu moment per song on ‘Sadistic Invaders‘ but this is perhaps par for the course today as black/thrash metal and all adjacent speed metal variants have been fairly uninspired since at least 2018 if we’re generous. In this sense Atonement stand out for their sound and attack more than they do their compositions which are relatively by-the-numbers, especially as they duck into a few shorter pieces (“Evil Minds”, for example) which are quick hits of early Slayer-isms at best. Even if not bringing anything particularly new to the table there’ll be more than enough brain-stewing aggression to enjoy for the dedicated sub-genre specific fandom and yes, include me in the lot of folks who live for over the top classic thrash with a decidedly ‘evil’ extreme bent.

While it might make sense to pick through every riff from that point and begin to praise/deny each it’d be more worth everyone’s time to suggest a line of particularly rousing and inspired works lies ahead but the real value of this record is its potential energy set within an infinite loop… at least in the sense that once I’d taken one ride through the ~37 minute, ten song affair it’d already convinced me to leave the damned thing on for another 4-5 hours off the rip. The storied tunnel vision available to extreme and underground thrash metal of the late 80’s, where the pocket they ride in feels infinite, surely afflicts ‘Sadistic Invaders‘ per their straightforward riff-carried approach and obsessive ‘old school’ sound. Just as I was completely absorbed into Shakma‘s latest a couple of months ago so have I found Atonement‘s debut the right place to soak my head and get lost. In that mode and for the sake of pure enjoyment this record has all the right shit going for it, it isn’t until I take a step back and begin to identify a few too-familiar riffs that I start losing my high from the Satanic speed metal fumes available. Still, a remarkably inspired debut and a record I’ll be holding onto for the rest of the year. A moderately high recommendation.

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