When you’ve been around the block a few times, it’s only natural that you begin to really know and understand what you’re doing. That can be the case with many bands throughout the underground as they make their own paths through the madness as time goes on, but there are always those that seem to be further along than other. After a decade, it’s not uncommon whatsoever to see a band really come into its own and show us what it can bring to the table with after plenty of experience and self-experimentation.

Dealing with a sound that invokes the old school of any given style can be something that comes with difficulty some and immense difficulties to others. It’s a tried and true sound that still has more than enough to give for those students who are able to lose themselves within its winding halls, but it can oftentimes feel as though such dedicated individuals struggle before such a task. You want to emulate what the classic albums accomplished, yet you want to still throw something down that’s certifiably your own rather than a mere imitation. For what Hemotoxin has done with “When Time Becomes Loss”, it’s clear that their fourteen years of experience has come to grand fruition. Throughout the absolute entirety of their fourth full-length creation, Hemotoxin shows nothing but extreme capacity in this style as it’s in every step along the way that this Californian quartet shows off a stupendous level of quality that’s more than enough to rile any and every fan of the sound that has surely been craving more in recent times. Where plenty have fallen short, Hemotoxin rises to the occasion to show us what dark majesty can still be accomplished.

A record such as this is something that feels as though it only comes around a handful of times in any year if at all with 2024 feeling quite scant in some select styles with only a handful of names seeming to prop up their respective style. In the case of what death-thrash has to offer, Hemotoxin is undeniably a name that stands out amongst the competition. A fierce assembly of all that has ever made this particular sound something to respect and fear in its darkest assaults, “When Time Becomes Loss” is the style at a fascinating peak.

LISTEN to “When Time Becomes Loss” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Hemotoxin on Facebook here.