Whether you want to call it black metal, thrash, blackened thrash, or anything else on the ever growing list of metal subgenres, what’s really important here is that Skeletonwitch know how to write some serious metal songs.

On its fourth album, Forever Abomination, the Athens, Ohio band freely mashes styles, pulling together the choicest bits of black and thrash metal to create the most intense sound possible.

This blend of driving riffage and suffocating relentlessness allows the band to strike a fine balance between freewheeling guitar worship and oppressive gloom.

It’s that balance that gives listeners a lifeline to carry them from song to song instead of just pummeling them into dark oblivion, and while it has plenty of eerie, wintry moments to revel in, it’s really all about the motoric drive that’s always propelling the album forward.

With a running time clocking in at just over 30 minutes, Forever Abomination plays out like a musical smash-and-grab that bursts into your place unannounced, tears the place up a bit, and then leaves just as quickly, leaving you bewilderedly wondering where your watch and television ran off to.