Back in 1990 I was a 15-year-old kid who was just getting into thrash metal and I bought an album by a North East thrash band called Toranaga. It was their major label debut. They’ve not been prolific since. An EP in 2011 and an album two years later, and now this, which feels like a proper return.
“Desecration” is what you might call proper thrash too. Fast, furious about something, anything, and filthy sounding. That’s how I remember Toranaga UK and the years ain’t mellowed them. It’s perfect. It really is.
This four-tracker is quite the welcome back. Guitars crush. Riffs could pierce armour plating. “A New Order” is slower, more deliberate, but more crushing for all that. Fear and confusion abound. Welcome to 2025, everyone. Thrash’s fascination with dystopia doesn’t need to look to the future these days, it seems.
These songs are not the two-minute boots to the bollocks that thrash often provides, with these stretching out. “The Shrine” has epic, almost Candlemass intent and likewise “Sword Of Damocles” is all about crushing rather than speed.
You also can’t escape the Metallica influence here, and it’d be ace to imagine a world where instead of Gojira boring the tits off me (my website, my opinions) in Cardiff next summer, a proper band was on instead. One like Toranaga UK, perhaps?
Whatever “A New Order” is, it’s a hell of a return.
Rating: 8.5/10
