Review by Greg on August 3, 2025.

Ah, do you remember the early days of revival thrash metal? There was a time, approximately around 2006, when you could release the least ambitious albums imaginable and focus on reminding people how fuckin' good the genre was back in the day, and you would have been hailed as a pioneer of the scene in the blink of an eye. I'm not gonna lie to you and say I enjoy none of those albums nowadays, but honestly, stop to think about it: the only thing Spread the Fire, Chemical Assault, or War Without End had in common was a complete rejection of any possible idea that could be traced back to another subgenre or period. Slightly behind said efforts, although amazingly predating all of those, was 2005's debut by Cali thrashers Avenger of Blood, Complete Annihilation.

In all honesty, the issue about this kind of album is, precisely, context. I have no doubt that, upon its release, a work like this had looked refreshing, albeit devoid of anything new, for a world that had completely forgot about the whole genre, the stubborn Teutonic scene and the odd Hypnosia or Dekapitator popping up every once in a while being among the very few to continue smashing skulls in the meantime. Now, almost 20 years later, the landscape is vastly different, and the new school originally spawned by these works has since proceeded to compose countless masterpieces which easily obliterated them. In short, the point of view is gonna be inevitably different. Is this the same argument people use when trying to convince others that Reign in Blood isn't really a great record and you all are nothing but sheep for believing a lie? Unfortunately, yes, kinda.

Yet, guess what, Complete Annihilation isn't Reign in Blood, by a wide margin. Its almost 40 minutes, tried to follow the same route, however, and the outcome was going to be either 'consistent' or 'repetitive', depending on the overall quality. The truth, as often happens, is somewhere in between. The no-nonsense frontal assault of the tracks is convincing enough to bring a smile to my face every now and then, with Avenger of Blood's brand of thrash that could only be described as 'seismic'. Whereas, for example, Evile would soon present their new millennium version of Kill 'Em All with Enter the Grave, Avenger of Blood treads more extreme paths, even making a quick trip to South America (and the raw production certainly points in that way). I'm reluctant to point out specific songs since I'm still possibly having a hard time discerning most of them, yet I'm pretty confident that the title-track, 'Scent of Death', 'Bound by Torment' and 'Trapped in Time' were among the hardest hitters, and I was positively shocked to notice that the longest episode, 'Where the Pictures Lie', managed to stay enjoyable for more than 6 minutes. Who would have thought?

If I could allow myself a modern comparison, Complete Annihilation is kinda the equivalent to those AI image generators from a text string, that usually return both good and bad, yet similar, results together, only that the prompt was something along the lines of 'old school thrash LP' – and you've got bangers, fillers and everything in between. No track is terribly different from any other, but some hit way differently for some reason, and nail exactly what I love about thrash for those 3 minutes. The virtually non-existent variation makes it get old fast, though. Try it, but don't expect the unexpectable.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10