"Blood of the Martyr" kick starts the album with a nuts-and-bolts thrash metal approach and you begin to feel the illusion of originality sneaking up behind you until the vocals start. I found myself double checking that I wasn't listening to a Slayer album. This isn't for just the first track; it goes on throughout the whole album. This is an experienced band, and I thought they would be above the cheap tricks that young retro bands do to grab some extra attention -- but they aren't. They shamelessly ripped off the whole package, the Tom Araya voice, the Kerry King solo style, the Dave Lombardo (albeit much less competent) drumming, and to make matters even worse, the transitional riffs are predictable and not refreshing.

As I sip my cup of coffee and clean my music receptors by listening to Mogwai's whimsically titled masterpiece _Happy Songs for Happy People_, I wonder how long will thrash metal have such corner-cutting bands that keep bringing bad reputation to the genre. Copy-pasting riffs and drumming patterns just doesn't work these days and the more we have bands that keep doing that, the more saturated the genre will be. This will eventually make us more eager for the next Sodom or Exodus album and just give up on the new blood entirely. Anihilated sounded like a promising group on _The Ultimate Desecration_ twenty one years ago, but it seems that time has taken its toll on their creative ability. This _Scorched Earth Policy_ hardly establishes itself as an appreciable listen.