Upon picking up _Triumph of Tragedy_ I formed the assumption that this would be another run of the mill old-school thrash tribute act with a peppering of modern technical thrash thrown in. The first few riffs of "The Beginning of the End" certainly feels like a nasty little brew of Testament, Sodom and Exodus laced with a potent strain of Lamb of God type technicality. Yet as the thrash machine chugs into gear on "Scars and Stripes", interesting little nuances creep and weave themselves into the melee. There's dirty groove in smouldering guitar lines on "Scarred Like Us", soaring yet heady melody in the well placed interludes of "Gotham", and a highly polished machine gun aggression that cuts a distinctive pattern throughout.

The only fault here is that Jan's vocals sound unnervingly like Angelripper's; it's hard to give them any real credibility, which is a huge shame. Nevertheless, this is a highly original and multidimensional slice of neo thrash.