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HOSTILIA
Face The Fire

Hammerheart (2025)
Rating: 7/10

Thrash metal, Swedish style, is on the agenda with Hostilia. Face The Fire is their debut full-length album which has emerged after a brace of EPs. The band of five formed four years ago out of Gothenburg, although current vocalist Tim Angelini didn’t join the ranks until 2023. The rest of the line-up comprises of the twin axe attack of Willie Lindeblad and Petter Hernroth, while on drums is Albert Lindeblad and bass duties are performed by Gabriel Sepúlveda.

Hostilia’s debut comes wrapped in ghoulish 80s style artwork and a sound boasting crisp musicianship with a textbook thrash framework. This really is a good thrash album sprinkled with both Bay Area and Teutonic dynamics and a genuinely melodic musicality which produces infectious results.

The vocals have a vicious snap to them as opener ‘Power Out’ chugs with menace. The riffs are as sharp as a razor, chopping and gnashing with malicious glee as the title track flickers with a 90s groove metal before the speedier blows ensue. At times Angelini sounds like Metallica’s James Hetfield, delivering snappy blows and scathing jabs.

There’s plenty of variety here as well though. ‘The Domino Effect’ is very much belligerence modern thrash, ‘Bone Collector’ is a deadly dose of measured thrash, and elsewhere songs such as ‘P.T.D.’ and fan favourite ‘Eternal Death’ fill the void and quench the thirst. Good stuff all round then if you like crisp, energetic thrash.

Neil Arnold

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