You can never quite tell what you are going to get with bands from Australia, so grabbing a promo like Canticles of Corruption from Melbourne's Maniaxe was an exciting roll of the dice. These three guys are revisiting the glories of 80s thrash metal like so many others, but definitely going about it a different way. Of course, you get blasphemous lyrics on "Maggots of God" and "God Save the Antichrist" (an album highlight) and more typically "metal" themes on "Heavy Metal Onslaught" and "Six Shots of Vengeance". The thing with Canticles of Corruption is the riffing is too precise for Venom but the arrangements and vocals too chaotic for Slayer. What you are left with is something in the vein of early Voivod. Maniaxe don't necessarily sound like the Canadian legends but this album has that same buzzy ferocity that threatens to fly off the handle at any moment but never fully loses focus. This is some good shit and I'm already greedily anticipating new music from Maniaxe.