Extinction A.D.: Ruthless Intent (2024, Unique Leader Records)

Extinction A.D. thrashers from Long Island (New York) are back with Ruthless Intent, their fifth studio EP composed of four new and spectacular songs that once again put the American quartet at the forefront of the underground hardcore/thrash scene as they have earned throughout the years. its more than ten years of experience. Formed in 2013 by drummer Mike Sciulara and vocalist and guitarist Rick Jimenez, both members of the thrash crossover project This Is Hell, throughout their two-five-year career they have undergone several lineup changes that culminated in 2018 with the arrival of bassist Tom Wood and the addition of guitarist Ian Cimaglia (Detriment) in 2015.

In 2022 they released their long-awaited third studio album Culture Of Violence, one of the best and most solid in their discography that surpassed the achievements that the band had already broken with the release of their EP CCCP: Chaos, Collusion, Carnage & Propaganda of 2021 with which I discovered them. Ruthless Intent arrives half a year after the band released the single Morality Bait, a song that already showed us the direction this EP would take, which also continues perfectly with the sound that the band had already achieved on their previous album Culture Of Violence.

Ruthless Intent is pure chaos, it is violence and it is determination, it is the culmination of a band that, being aware of the number of bands that fall within this genre, strives to stand out and achieves it practically without effort. There are many praises that Extinction A.D. It is earned on its own merit, although to understand it it is best to listen to Under The Hood, a song that combines the best of hardcore and thrash metal with fresh and heavy rhythm changes, banging your fist on the table and making it clear who is in control.

Living To Desecrate proposes something not so different but at the same time manages to distance itself from the genre thanks to the combination of frenetic and technical rhythms combining them with slower and heavier passages, thus creating an atmosphere of violence and decadence that invades the atmosphere of this interesting EP. This also contrasts with the first bars of Prodigal Scum, which also has certain reminiscences of other Extinction A.D. songs like Mastic or Culture Of Violence. The quartet closes the EP with the biting Morality Bait in which they once again use their critical lyrics with which they once again question the beliefs of human beings in an very intelligent way.

Extinction A.D. has returned with much more energy, proclaiming itself as one of the most interesting proposals of the genre today. Great work by Rick Jimenez on vocals as usual, with some well-worked riffs by the aforementioned Rick and the always compliant Ian Cimaglia to which we must add the always forceful rhythmic base of bassist Tom Wood and drummer Mike Sciulara. One of the launches to take into account in 2024.