United is one of the very few old school thrash bands to make it through the turn of the century with some dignity. Sure, they had a decent amount of dull groove metal in the mid to late nineties and their 2011 release ‘Tear Of Illusions’ is a tad too close to American metal trends for comfort at times, but their first releases of this century are some of the most spirited hardcore-inspired metal releases of their age. By leaning harder into the hardcore side of things, ‘Core’ shows a surprisingly unique and aggressive combination of thrash metal and hardcore.

Many aggressive metal bands trying to get with the times around 2000 went a similar route: taking the thrash-adjacent melodeath riffs of At The Gates’ ‘Slaughter Of The Soul’ and break them up with the breakdowns the likes of Machine Head borrowed from the hardcore scene, almost always after the second chorus. On ‘Core’ – as well as its predecessor ‘Infectious Hazard’ – United really delves into the dissonant chords and the rhythmic intricacies of hardcore and combines them with their trademark thrash riffs. The arrival of Masatoshi Yuasa could not have come at a better time, as his angry bark fits this style perfectly.

Strangely, this almost works better than the sound United is known for. Shingo Otani and Yoshifumi Yoshida are arguably the best riff writers among the more traditionally-minded thrash metal bands in Japan, but their songs sometimes lacked cohesion and they never had great vocalists. On ‘Core’, all of United’s best elements fall into place. Most of the songs are fairly intricate, which makes them fresh and engaging even after repeated listens. A track like ‘Hell Breaks Loose’ could be a decent fit for one of their early albums with a different productional approach, but most of ‘Core’ is a refreshing mix of influences not often heard in metal.

Overall, ‘Core’ is a very consistent album. Nearly every song has a few blunt, but satisfying riffs and the way the band experiments with tempo and time feel changes works to their advantage. Opening track ‘Bust Dying Mind’, for example, has plenty of riffs to get the conservative thrasher to bang his head, but also some notably more contemporary sections. ‘Purify’ is a more modern track full of bouncy rhythms, but also some hyper-aggressive riffs and an incredible off-kilter, rhythmically dense middle section, and the way ‘They Come With The Storm’ plays with dynamic changes is impressive. Closer ‘Loss And Gain’ is consistently fast and annihilates everything in its way.

‘Core’ sometimes feels more like a hardcore band playing thrash riffs than the other way around, which makes it a highly entertaining listen. Sure, there are a few moments where the breakdown riffs could have been truncated somewhat in ‘Crucify The Weak’ most prominently, but as a whole, ‘Core’ sounds completely different than one would imagine thrash with hardcore influences to sound like. This might just be United’s most consistent album to date. Don’t expect pure, unadulterated thrash going in and you might be as enthralled by its creative, aggressive riffing and oppressive atmosphere as I am to this day.

Recommended tracks: ‘Bust Dying Mind’, ‘Hell Breaks Loose’, ‘Purify’, ‘Loss And Gain’