Back in 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” and since then this, and its English translation “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, have been widely quoted and while listening to Eradikated’s debut album, the quote came to mind.

In a world where the boundaries of musical genres, not least metal, are constantly being pushed by bands feeling the need to incorporate wider and wider sounds, there is a place, nay a need, for some bands to stay true to their roots and deliver metal in its purest form, and that’s where Eradikated come in.

The Swedish thrashers came into being back in 2015 as The Generation Army, being reborn as Eradikated in 2021, releasing their debut EP shortly after and soon gaining a reputation for energetic live shows, including the Indie Recordings label Inferno Festival warm up night earlier this year, which was my first encounter with the band where I described them as a “satisfying, sweaty thrash onslaught”.

After recently releasing a trio of singles, we now, finally, have the debut album, and it’s a cracker. ’Descendants’ is about dystopia and over the course of eleven tracks the album tells the tale of an apocalyptic future addressing climate disasters, greed and a painful new world all set to an appropriately blistering soundtrack.

There are obvious comparisons with 1980s thrash such as Exodus, Onslaught and Hirax for example, as well as more modern exponents of the genre such as Evile and Municipal Waste. As the album progressed I was reminded of ‘Reign in Blood’ and ‘South of Heaven’ era Slayer on ‘Dead Heaven’ and ‘Hazardous’ for example, which is quite a compliment.

As much as there are these obvious comparisons, Eradikated are more than mere clones and bring their own personality to proceedings with chugging riffs, shredding solos and angry vocals, all with a crisp, raw sound.

If you enjoy thrash, then this is highly recommended, and I look forward to the next opportunity to cross paths with the Swedes.

(8/10 Andy Pountney)

https://www.facebook.com/eradikatedofficial

https://eradikated.bandcamp.com/album/descendants