South Africa’s Infanteria offer an intriguing array of thoughtful, intricate instrumentation on their third full-length album Patriarch. It’s not just another thrash metal record as the band displays interesting lyrics with a sins of the father theme that musically shows impressive song composition, riff arrangement, and utilization of acoustic guitars. It’s unequivocally thrash metal at its core, but it does get a touch progressive without becoming too technical.

There’s an Overkill / Anthrax rhythmic onslaught Infanteria possess and it’s evident in opener, “Burnt Relic”. Vocalist Chris Hall has some James Hetfield in him – which makes sense because the band started out covering Metallica songs – although Hall is not as gritty as the Metallica legend. Growls are interspersed at precise moments when the music becomes intense. Acoustic guitars are cleverly used, especially love the use of them in the soloing section of “Raging Bastards”. “Swansong” is an 8-minute stomper with soft interludes and smooth transitions making it stand as the highlight of Patriarch. Infanteria can keep things in motion with the Exodus like pouncing of “Embrace The Trauma” while “Repent Through Orders You Seek” holds some catchy vocal lines in the chorus section and musically holds unexpected mood changes.

The soloing is melodic and fierce without being too showy and fit the songs to a tee while the drumming doesn’t become overly technical, but it is crafty, like the cymbal work on “Repent Through Orders You Seek”. I want to call this introspective thrash metal as the song and lyrics were carefully crafted, but that comes off as pretentious. The most important aspect of Patriarch is that it forms its own character in the thrash world and is worth repeated listens – give these guys a look!