When it rains, it pours. If you asked me two weeks ago that thrash metal would offer me one great creation after another after being quite dry and uninteresting for months at a time then I would have absolutely had my doubts. Thrash has always been overflowing with potential but it’s not nearly enough that I’ve come across bands in my years of searching that manage to deliver on a level that feels as though it lives up to what the sound can be. First it was Doomsday and then Hexecutor that caught me off-guard and surprised me. Now, it’s with their forthcoming sophomore album Sijjin delivers death-infused thrash metal on such a scale that just leaves me bewildered.

While I find myself very pleased with what 2025 has done for me in the ways of thrash metal, it’s still not often enough that we’re able to come before a creation that manages to bring together thrash with death metal in such a form that feels genuine, intense, and downright satisfying for what a speedy form of destruction is able to deliver in the right hands. Sijjin had but a single full-length album to call its own before now, yet it’s not even halfway through the first track of “Helljjin Combat” that one cannot help but get the feeling that we’re given something exceptional here. This album is the definition of a fucking ripper! It’s got everything in the right amounts from the speed to the raw destruction to the very fires of hell having a part to play in these eight unrelenting tracks that have something for everybody whether it’s in the ferocity, the speed, the sheer menace that’s present in every moment of the work, the infectious nature of the riffs, or the simple fact that Sijjin excels at making this album and this sound their own rather than a copy-cat of much of what has come before. It’s clear throughout the whole of “Helljjin Combat” that Sijjin is intimately knowledgeable about this corner of thrash with the power and capacity to match in order to bring about intense glory right from the beginning.

It’s one thing to bring about intensity and speed individually, but to deliver them both in a single package with such overwhelming results is to have crafted something special with those that take it further offering something that cannot be deemed as anything less than extraordinary. Without a doubt, Sijjin has accomplished that with what’s only their second album. “Helljjin Combat” is as dense as it is intimidating with a great reward to be had for those who are able to endure the tormented screams and whips of hellfire in order to find magnificence of a kind we don’t get to witness often enough.

“Helljjin Combat” releases on April 25th via Sepulchral Voice Records!

LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Helljjin Combat” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Sijjin on Facebook here.

FOLLOW Sijjin on Instagram here.