If there's one thing I've learned over the years - when in doubt, see what's happening in Italy or Japan musically. The former has always had a fun metal scene in general, but never to the point where you'd think they could compete with the big boyz of America or Germany. At least when it comes to thrash anyway.

Now me, as long as the melodies are fun I don't care that much about the heaviness of the thrash band in question, but Ancient Dome go above and beyond to blend a multitude of things I appreciate in metal. They have that classic Big Four drive, but they play in modalities that will remind you at times of Megadeth when they almost turned prog-metal or early Vicious Rumors. There's also a hint of USPM in stuff like 6-minute epic D.I.E. (Droids In Exile). Nothing here that will rewrite the landscape necessarily, but these pasta-eaters know that variety is the spice of life and nothing drags on more than its supposed to. As we learned with the story of Goldilocks, sometimes being neither too hot nor too cold is just the place you want to be when you want a headbanging tour of the cosmos.