What a relief when a young band that is advertised as thrash metal actually plays thrash metal. Too often, labels, managements and PR agencies have the tendency to throw the thrash label around for death metal bands that aren’t very blastbeat-heavy or – even worse – relatively uptempo metalcore. On their second full-length ‘Wiring of Violence’ – third if you count the one they released when they were still called The Generations Army – Eradikated offers everything a good thrash metal album should have: razor-sharp riffs, drums that beef up the palm-muted single notes, intense vocals, and a seemingly endless supply of hungry energy.

The closest soundalike to Eradikated as far as classic thrash metal bands go is probably Slayer, as many of the riffs on ‘Wiring of Violence’ would not sound out of place on their albums, but fortunately, they have not gone for that weird, muddy guitar sound King and Hanneman did go for. Instead, Ragnar Östberg and frontman Elvin Landaeus Csizmadia have a sharp, modern tone that really allows you to pick up on all the details of their picking patterns. Also, Östberg’s guitar solos are generally fantastic, building up their intensity extremely effectively and truly adding something to the songs melodically.

One thing that stands out about ‘Wiring of Violence’ is just how tight Eradikated sounds as a band. Obviously, this is to be expected from a band playing together with the same line-up for twelve years, but keep in mind that these guys are only in their mid-twenties. There are much older bands with long careers that don’t sound like this much of a tight-knit unit. Combine that with Elvin Landaeus Csizmadia’s very intentional, precise diction, and you have a formula that works. In fact, that is what keeps songs like the annihilating, sub-two-minute ‘Tsar’ from descending into total chaos.

Despite it being only about half an hour long, ‘Wiring of Violence’ can roughly be divided into two halves. It starts out with the more direct songs, such as the intense ‘Mortality’ and the kick in the teeth of opening track ‘British Petroleum’. Toward the end, the slightly longer songs start to appear that despite being a bit slower aren’t the mid-tempo slogs that so many thrash metal bands get stuck in. In fact, closing track ‘Ashes’ is one of the stronger tracks and has a really cool ominous atmosphere. ‘Again I Rise’ is another song that has a fairly twisted vibe due to the excellent use of dissonant chords in its riffs.

Eradikated honestly shows that there is hope for the future of the genre. There are excellent thrash riffs for days on ‘Wiring of Violence’, while both the lyrics and the vocal performance imply that the band is genuinely pissed off, which serves the purpose of the genre well. What’s also interesting is that while many European thrash metal bands lean towards the German scene of the eighties, Eradikated’s main influences are clearly on the American West Coast, with maybe a slightly more pronounced punky bite. If that’s how you like your thrash metal, don’t miss out on this talented Swedish quartet.

Recommended tracks: ‘Tsar’, ‘Ashes’, ‘Wiring of Violence’