Onslaught: Generation Antichrist (AFM, 2020)

If you somehow managed to forget about UK thrashers Onslaught in the seven years since their last album (2013’s relentless VI), their latest album Generation Antichrist is a hell (pun intended) of a reminder why this band is a force (pun also intended) to be reckoned with. It’s the band’s seventh album, and the first to feature new vocalist Dave Garnett. This is also the first time the band has worked with producer Daniel Bergstrand (Behemoth, In Flames), and that involvement made a huge difference in the overall approach here.

Onslaught is, quite simply, not fucking around here. Generation Antichrist is a fierce, relentless thrash metal attack that’s all brutal rhythms and rage-filled snarled lyrics. Once you clear the brief intro, “Strike Fast Strike Hard” tells you real quickly what you’re in for, and it never lets up from there. This is basically a 36-minute punch to the face. Government, organized religion, the surveillance state, the elite…they all get their own “fuck you” on this album. Sure, that’s a little cliché at this point, but there’s still something satisfying about banging your head and raging against authority like you did as a teenager. Garnett is a perfect fit for the band, with enough venom in his voice to match the fury of the music, and Bergstrand’s production gives this veteran band a more up to date edge.

It’s rare that a thrash album grabs you by the throat like this and is so completely satisfying from start to finish, but Generation Antichrist definitely gets that job done. Onslaught is more than just competing with the likes of Testament, Destruction and Havok here; they’ve released arguably the best thrash album of 2020.