A couple of sleazy harassing dudes fall for the bait and pay the ultimate price — one gets off easy with a bullet to the head, while the other experiences exsanguination by a thousand vicious cuts. Sound exciting? That may depend on how well you react to maniacal torture and abundant blood spatter, which the video we’re presenting delivers in especially vivid fashion (thanks to the filmwork of Mike Sloat). But regardless of your taste for violence and gore, the song accompanied by the video is undeniably a full-throttle thrill ride.

The band in question, Trial By Combat, clearly know how to kick a listener’s pulse rate into high gear, using a hard-grooving, hard-charging amalgam of death/thrash and hardcore as their high-octane fuel. That they’re so good at this isn’t a big surprise, given that this California group from Santa Rosa and Sacramento have been honing their craft for more than 13 years, participating in two Vans Warped tours and sharing stages with such bands as Soulfly, Black Dahlia Murder, Tyr, Hatchet, Aenimus, and many others.

What’s perhaps more surprising is that only now are the band planning the release of their first full-length, after releasing three EPs. But based on the song we’re premiering today — “Exsanguination Excite” — the wait seems well worth it. Continue reading »