In a city known for aggressive music and deadly subzero temperatures, Climactic hold high the torch passed down from Anal Blast, With Dead Hands Rising and Martyr AD. On their debut, 'Set the Rapture Ablaze,' Climactic combine thrash and death skillfully and with ease -- and to wide appeal. By leaving just the right amount of melody in their destructive path, the band avoids being lumped in with contemporaries whose percussive, linear styles rest on trite chugging riffs.

As frontman Eric Keys told Diffuser.fm, 'Of Musk & Rut,' today's free MP3 download, tends to end Climactic's set.

"It's a lot of fun to play, because it has that big beat-down part in the middle, and it has a real 'classic' thrash feel to it," Keys says. "In a way, it describes our sound as a whole. We're not trying to re-invent the wheel here. We just want to write fast, in-your-face metal ... and bring back the circle pit!"

They've definitely achieved "fast and in-your-face," but more importantly, at a time when false metallers riddle the suburbs with bad music, muddying the good name of heavy metal, Climactic are helping to remind Minneapolis of its roots and how to embrace a classic style.

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