Thornafire

Chile's Thornafire do a great job balancing cult, raw death with a grooving thrash edge and an unhinged South American death metal vibe. Imagine a looser version of Krisiun duking it out with Sepultura's most crazed moments and that's the sound of this band's third full-length. The "lunatic on the street corner" vocals are a nice touch (see "Immortal Agonia") and the music has a nice, relentless pummelling feel, with lots of tom pounding and forward momentum. The band pull back a bit occasionally to powerful mid-tempo turf (see the first half of "Disarmonica Tension"), which only adds to the general feel that these guys are what Sepultura could be today had they continued in a more primitive death metal direction. The energy levels are through the roof, giving this a nice edge over lots of death metal bands, making it tons of fun to listen to.