A plague of madness unleashed from a well-guarded tomb, a journey back out of Hell, and war all the time fume under the hood of Gothenburg, Sweden-based thrash metal quintet HOSTILIA‘s machine on this meticulously achieved sophomore full-length album. Designed to the exacting standards of mid-to-late 80’s sounds but willing to reach into the melodicism of the earliest 90’s ‘The Curse of Khamun‘ achieves a sense of authenticity beyond the reach of many by taking their own hand to sound design but impress most readily via songcraft which is brave enough to reach for a rowdy-ass hook here and there. For the thrash addict uninterested in the modernization, enshittification, and meta-cannibalized mutation of the sub-genre this record should offer relief per its honorable aims.

Formed by the brothers Lindeblad circa 2021 Hostilia have proven one of the more ambitious, well-backed ‘old school’ thrash metal inspired names out of Sweden in the last several years, noted for their pursuit of authentic sound and style. Earlier days vocalist Samuel Alnesten Alvarez‘s gruff frontage helped the band’s debut EP (‘Atomic Thunder‘, 2023) stand out wherein inspiration was seemingly taken from earlier Exodus but with a traditional heavy metal bent. In brief review of the band’s debut LP (‘Face the Fire‘, 2025) I’d been “[…] impressed by the band’s ability to pivot into different song types and melodic shapes without losing sight for the general strictures of late 80’s thrash metal production values.” suggesting that a fan of the real thing, or even just the ambitions of earlier Testament and Overkill, would appreciate the band outright. Their return for album number two reanimates those classicist (non-extreme) traits, generally emphasizing the Bay Area-attuned ideal they’ve carried since inception.

Exactly one year later ‘The Curse of Khamun‘ finds the quintet’s efforts engineered/produced in house (b/w mixing from Per Stålberg @ Welfare Sounds) for the first time and in the process they’ve angled sound design and songcraft even closer to the late 80’s/early 90’s tradition. Although each of Hostilia‘s releases have been tasked with direct representation of classic thrash modus, it being the most successful part of their whole deal, with this second LP they’ve removed all traces of the artificial aftertaste common to post-millennial “retro” neothrash bands. Accessing era-specific sound design and authoring nearer to the blunt-faced heavy metal of the sub-genre’s heyday is thusly the major appeal of this album, a result that falls somewhere in between iteration and mastery in its skill-up.

The running order of ‘The Curse of Khamun‘ generally speaks to the classic heavy metal/hard rock format in that it features eight ~5-6 minute pieces, begins and ends with clear opener/closer energies, bulks itself with an extended instrumental (“Enchanter of the Sea”) and even manages a ballad (“Sleeping Water”) at its mid-point. The pairing of brief intro “The Awakening” and opener “Lost in the Void” doesn’t rev their engines to a roar outright but the latter should immediately cue the listener into Hostilia‘s core attack which speaks to the well-populated spectrum of Bay Area influenced thrash post-‘Ride the Lightning‘ (see: “Escape From Hell“) and beyond where groups like Defiance, Xentrix and many more who’d worked their own slight angle upon an increasingly popular template. In direct comparison these folks are far more interested in melody, street thrashing ‘tude and the cleverness of the riff rather than blazing speed or extremity.

The Exodus-meets-Testament bravado of key single “No Mercy for the Weak” might pull your head off of the catchier “The Curse of Khamun” that precedes it thanks to dueling leads and the street thrashing pump of its main verses. This type of song and its head-bopping moves help to give Hostilia that commercial but throwback personage that’d eluded much of their debut, a good piece to hit someone with on a radio show etc. as an introduction. That said the whole middle portion of the album is likely to serve as the most memorable chunk of the full listen before the more riff oriented or just narrative parts of Side B (“The Ritual”) hit. As “Lightning Warfare” quickly carves out the end the finale of the experience feels less than grand, inserting a weak mosh riff or two into the maelstrom.

The total effect of ‘The Curse of Khamun‘ was steeling in the sense that it struck the way a solid heavy metal album should, featured traditioned variety, and managed more than a few speed-metallic + arena thrash hooks in the midst of its sojourn. Though you’ll have to take into account I am a fanatic for every “tier” of 80’s thrash metal adjacency Hostilia‘s intense study of classic thrash and keen translation of that influence into their own gig impressed from the first listen, an above-average and studious act off the rip. A lesser fanatic could argue their efforts as typical fare, or, too deeply entrenched in the zeitgeist of old, but that’d inadvertently champion the general purpose of the quintet entirely. A high recommendation.

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