I was lucky enough to get my hands on a cassette copy of this killer split, and it was worth the price. Each band delivers four tracks of vicious punked-up metal, with Shadow Hounds bestowing upon us their brand of thrashing deathcrust, and Sexcult bringing their amped up blackthrash. Shadow Hounds even gives us a cover of Death's "Evil Dead" as their fourth track, and it's a superb version. They manage to be more aggressive than so much of what calls itself thrash metal these days, the heavy crust influence serving to make them extra violent, especially in a breakdown. Their singer reminds me a lot of John Tardy from Obituary, with strong higher-pitched screams and growls, and there are plenty of excellent gang vocals as well to punctuate important parts of the songs. Their sound reminds me of Amebix playing early Death's instruments after being taught how to play by Hellhammer or Celtic Frost. Sexcult, on side B of the cassette, has plenty of black metal influence in their sound, but more of the first wave variety. They trade off male and female screamed vocals for a very crusty feel, matching the punk rhythms of the songs perfectly. All four of their tracks are originals, and while I don't like them as much as I do Shadow Hounds, they're still an incredibly good band. Their sound is more thrash-based, with plenty of Venom influence in the drumming and guitars, but punk as fuck in the vocal department and songwriting. These are unique bands united on magnetic tape, the way it should be, and if this sounds like something you need, you can always pick up the digital release if the cassette is sold out.