The style description „Unique Thrash Metal“ for the actual CD ...This Present Darkness..., from the Norwegian band TONKA let my alarm bells ring. Is it now Thrash, which is extremely good or are there so many influences from different styles in it, that you hardly recognize it as Thrash?

In the end, my presumptions meet up somewhere in the middle. TONKA are playing overall Thrash Metal, which consists mainly out of midtempo and slow parts. Because of this, you don’t have so much headbanging parts, but a really cool Thrash attitude can be heard out of the songs. Especially Pornochild hits the marks with the catchy refrains and the great vocals.
You should not put TONKA near bands like Kreator or Testament, so in this way the Norwegians are playing a kind of unique Thrash, but more and more parts during the CD are reminding me of Power Metal (My Last Abduction), so we could better speak of a Power / Thrash release than of an pure Thrash Metal record.
The biggest advantage of TONKA is for me the performance of the vocals, which spans really aggressive parts as well as slow parts in the ballads. And even if some songs aren’t so much innovative in songwriting, the vocals are having always a very good drive and give each song something special, which wasn’t there before.
Through these things TONKA are able to get the head a little bit out of the vast ocean of releases. So we can just hope, that someone notices the qualities of the band, which they undoubtedly possess, and give them a chance.

Tonka