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No hardcore band of the last decade has worn their love of thrash metal as firmly on their sleeves as This Is Hell.

By the time of their last album, 2011’s Black Mass, they had basically morphed into a pure Bay Area tribute.

So it’s no surprise to see the direction guitarist Rick Jimenez has taken for his new project, Extinction AD. All the pace, rawness, sharp, spiky riffs and apocalyptic lyrical content that characterises the best of thrash is here in spades.

Close your eyes and the excellent Echoes Of Life could be Testament at their best, while the guttural Civil Execution borrows from the more extreme end of Teutonic thrash and Prisoners aims for the sort of creepy opening that Slayer perfected on Dead Skin Mask before just going back for the jugular. Basically, if you’ve longed for a modern band to come along and deliver thrash metal in a classic style with the reverence it deserves, Faithkiller was made for your banging head.

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.