Guitarist Toby Knapp's black/thrash metal project, Affliktor, has signed with India's Transcending Obscurity Records. 

"Musically this is heavily influenced by early Kreator and Morbid Angel along with vocal and guitar styles that recall early black metal," states the guitarist. "As far as the guitar solos, I wanted to break away from the usual neo-classical influence and play aggressive improvised solos inspired by the controlled yet chaotic playing of early thrash metal such as Slayer, Destruction, Exodus and even early Metallica."

Transcending Obscurity Records owner Kunal Choksi comments: “Toby Knapp is a world-renowned guitar virtuoso and is involved in the creation of music of all styles since the ’90s. He’s been a part of bands like Godless Rising and of late Waxen, Where Evil Follows, Sue’s Idol, Onward, not to mention his prolific eponymous solo band. I first came to know about him when he contributed leads to the recent Fetid Zombie album. When I heard his new black/thrash metal band Affliktor, I was blown. It was refreshing because he’s using his famed method of guitar shredding to play an underground style of music without taking away the intensity or genre’s inherent harshness. The outcome is stunning and I’m pleased to be working with the debut full length of Affliktor. The artworks have been made by none other than Mark Riddick and you can expect a stunning package for this one.”

Toby Knapp: “The Affliktor album was originally intended to be a pure thrash album, so the first layer of music is thrashing speed metal riffs. As time went on the album started developing into a new sound. Once the solos and atmospheric guitar effects were recorded the album called for sickening black/death metal vocals. The final result was kind of a technical black thrash metal hybrid. I have been fortunate to have my work released by some of the best labels in the world and with Kunal and Transcending ObscurityRecords- the tradition continues".

Although Knapp played all the instruments on Affliktor's debut, he has a band in place for live performance. The album is slated for release in mid-2017. A track taken from the album, "Burn The Earth", will be featured on the Crushing Notes Entertainment compilation Tyrants of Armageddon scheduled for release on March 30th.

Watch Knapp's official Facebook page here for updates.