The LA thrash scene is booming (or was) but back in 2008 the new wave of thrash was at its zenith and new thrashers with skinny ripped jeans, flipped caps, and terrible late 80's sunglasses were popping up almost on a weekly basis. On top of that, these newbies were putting out full-lengths with good production almost as soon as they came into being. Hexen however, were not one of the Johnny Come Lately types, they had been formed since '03 and had a demo out by '04, so they're certainly not trying to cash in suddenly.
But regardless of whether or not SoI was an attempt to catch the wave of fun retro-ness that was the NWOTM is completely irrelevant, because the music was actually good. This is a band that knows their own strong points and knows them well. They put the guitars right up from and center delivering melodic thrash riffs on top of flashy solo work and a few progressive influences. Think, modern day Toxik with less high-pitch vocals.
The crunchy riffs seem to be almost out of the power metal stable of riffs-n-such. That being said, expect to see landscapes of epicness when you close your eyes while listening to the record. Nothing on the scale of dragons and ridiculous fantasy settings as per usual power metal, but more down to earth and believable kind of epic. This is compounded by the lyrics which paint a pretty detailed picture all by themselves. Though the bass has sweet little high toned solo in "Blast Radius" it's barely audible 'neath the uber thrash guitars. Same goes for the drums which, while they do keep a beat and don't get sloppy, they're hardly interesting or prominent.
If you're a guitar freak, check dis shit out brah. If you couldn't give a toss about that six stringed contraption that gets all the glory, you may wanna pass this one up. However, let it be known you're passing up some good modern-day power thrash.
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