In my case, Chile’s THORNAFIRE was always one of those bands I heard about once in a while, but somehow never got around to checking out. Two songs into it, and I pronounce myself impressed; these guys sound like KRISIUN with some of THE CHASM thrown in. For some reason my track-list appears in Chilean Spanish, which shouldn’t be the case for the North American version, so relax non-Spanish speakers (that includes me too!) The first three tracks, ‘Carnaval Caos’, ‘Malefactor Manifesto’ and ‘Ruptura’ exhibit THORNAFIRE’s high octane approach to Metal: raging speed, stentorian, demonic vocals, and interesting harmonies. This style falls off for a few slower, but no less heavy, songs (‘Vulgar Medium Ectoplasma’, ‘Immortal Agonia’) but returns by the sixth song, ‘Desintegracion’. Although, by this point in the album there is more generous portion of melodic Thrash thrown in, not that that should be a deterrent. I think it’s fair to say that CANNIBAL CORPSE and other technical bands influenced by CANNIBAL CORPSE in turn influence THORNAFIRE. ‘Disarmonica Tension’, for instance, contains the melodic tap / picking thing bands such as PSYCROPTIC or NECROPHAGIST might use. Were it not for the next song, ‘Sumision’, you might despair of the more technical style of the last couple songs. Not to worry, for ‘Sumision’ sounds very much like it was inspired by IMMOLATION, and we all know what that means: dark, excellent Death Metal, ladies and gentlemen! Check this stuff out! www.thornafire.cl, www.facebook.com/thornafire, www.myspace.com/thornafire, www.ibexmoonrecords.com