EXODUS ATROCITY EXHIBITION

San Francisco thrash veterans Exodus are old-school enough to count Metallica's Kirk Hammett as a founding member, but 27 years on, they're still banging heads with a ferocity many of their peers can't match. Loaded to bursting with the kind of rapid-fire, aggressive guitar that made the Bay Area ground zero for '80s metal, ATROCITY EXHIBITION cruises along with power and focus. Tracks like "Riot Act" take off on the high-octane blitz of second-generation acts like Anthrax that Exodus gave birth to, and moodier, mammoth numbers like the title track feature both speed and power in equal measures. Thrash purists who lament the death of the real thing will rejoice in this still-furious act's new vigor.

• Format: CD