Virginian vicious blackened Thrashers THE DAY OF THE BEAST are unleashing some hell again. I remember liking the band’s 2008 self-titled debut album quite much, really enjoying these fellows’ somewhat straightforward and uncompromising sound of both Black and Thrash Metal. I also remember placing them into the very same category together with such names as Swedish MERCILESS, DESASTER, DESTRÖYER 666 and other more wicked sounding hordes that represent more of this darker and rawer side of Thrash Metal. Since those days, not much has changed expect on the band’s follow-up record “Relentless Demonic Intrusion”, the band has got a new drummer named Jeremy Bradley, plus guitarist KC Raider has stepped out from the line-up and his place was taken by a guy called Mike Gardner on this group’s latest 9-track recording (who was again replaced by Steve Redmond). So there’s the latest updates about them in some sort of short nutshell. On “Relentless Demonic Intrusion”, the band’s blades slash deep again, and it’s kinda impossible to dislike this stuff if you already know what to expect from these lads. THE DAY OF THE BEAST’s Black / Thrash Metal comes across just great to all those suckers of Metal music who enjoy it crunchy, evil-oozing and nearly primitive sounding. There’s basically the very same charm to their stuff that one is able to find from the largely respected Kansas City-based blackened Thrash hordes ARES KINGDOM, minus a couple of spoonfuls of originality perhaps. If I enjoyed their self-titled album over 3 years ago, I have also enjoyed the heck out of “Relentless Demonic Intrusion”, which overall adds more venom, priests’ vomit, a fair bucketful of sharp nails and pieces of glass and all other elements of nastier kind into the band’s own heavily spoiling cauldron. These guys kick ass on all levels – and I hope that we’ll be blessed (or cursed) to get more solid releases from them in the future too as regards maintaining the same enjoyable quality in the songwriting wise. Horns up for them as a sign of unconditional approval. www.thedayofthebeast.com, www.canonicalhours.com