Deströyer 666 - Bitter Scorn EP (2023)

Bitter Scorn is little more than a bite-sized after mint to the phenomenal Never Surrender record, Deströyer 666 riding high on another success, and I have to admit it delivers. Partly on the strength of the cover song; K.K. Warslut and friends do not mess around when they decide to include something like this, and whilst Dio's "I Speed at Night" is a much different pick than something like "Prometheus" from the Terror Abraxas EP, it's another awesome execution which fully translates the driving, simplistic heavy metal number into their more volatile, armored and aggressive style, which feels flush with the increased elements of speed and thrash metal that have dominated their last two albums, but have always been in the DNA to some degree.

The new original, the title track, is also pretty good, with a great chorus and a vocal break that reminds me of something Venom would have done in their heyday. Like a lot of their recent material, it's largely built upon a speed/heavy metal structure but then injected with some of the blackened thrash elements, and yet they just don't sound a lot like the myriad of other bands doing their style. Perhaps because they've built up such a unique foundation from which to approach it, or the way they produce the guitars, Deströyer 666 has been fairly original for some time. Now, this is a 7", it's limited, collectible, and there are those restraints, most people will have to check out the Dio cover (at least) online, but it's worth hearing, and "Bitter Scorn" itself I think is available on one of the deluxe editions of Never Surrender, where it's probably a better fit. So as an individual PRODUCT, this has limited appeal beyond collectors, but the tunes will please those into the last decade of Deströyer 666.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Never Surrender (2022)

If the biggest criticism I can level at Never Surrender is that it partly sounds like a couple of outtakes from Wildfire with some new ideas spliced in, then you know it's a pretty awesome time. And it is. I think nearly anything would have disappointed me after that masterpiece. The Call of the Wild EP left me a little dry, sure, but if Deströyer 666 had simply called it a day and hung up the bulletbelts, I would have had no cause for complaint, because they'd capped off a pretty strong career with a pinnacle of excellence and they'd only be headed back down the other side. To the great credit of K. K. Warslut and crew, they managed the descent with one scorcher of a follow-up that strikes a lot of the same nerves while revealing a couple new ones to bite into. 

The vocals aren't quite on the level of Wildfire, but they still sound pretty great, especially with the exciting gang shouts and the continued use of that reverb effect that makes him sound so sinister on the prior outing. Some of the speed metal elements here show a fraction more of a straight punk or hardcore feel to them, but at the same time there are tunes like "Andraste" where they even let a little of that old Hellhammer/Celtic Frost influence return. That track is actually a great example of some of the 'new' here, because they're using more of the ritual chant rhythms with cleaner vocals, and it contrasts very well with the harsher inflection and those tremolo-picked guitars. Some of the songs use a similar approach to the guitars but with a more mid-paced tempo, and it actually lends a darker and more epic vibe to the writing than even on Wildfire, but the shouts and the punk-laced riffs bring it right back to that exciting street level. There are some absolute banger riffs in tunes like "Guillotine", and "Grave Raiders", the latter of which sounds like almost a German heavy metal song via Grave Digger.

But there are definitely a few like the title track and "Rather Death" that would have fit right in on the previous album. Warslut does experiment with some even more Kreator-sounding vocals on the latter, and I'm half-convinced it's really Mille singing those parts. Elsewhere, he does some more pure trad BM rasps just because why the fuck not, and the closer "Batavia's Graveyard" even reminds me of a more twisted version of Rock'n'Rolf from Running Wild, with some of that epic Bathory Viking metal influence circa Hammerheart. It's these little nuances and tributes that prevent Never Surrender from sounding like a total unswerving sequel to Wildfire, and I appreciate them, because this is pretty powerful stuff and proves there is plenty of space left for them to explore and expand their overall sound. And maybe that's a deterrent for some who might have just wanted Phoenix rising or Unchain the Wolves, but to that I say: those albums haven't gone anywhere, you can still listen to them. I just love hearing an already good band hit a great stride decades into their career and if this record's any indicator, this trend is in no danger of slowing down. Phenomenal.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Call of the Wild EP (2018)

It's a difficult thing to follow up a masterpiece, or at least what I personally perceive to be a masterpiece, and so Deströyer 666 did the exact opposite. They released a humble EP, the Call of the Wild, with a title and cover art that resonate with the bestial mascots and warlike energies they've associated with in the past. While the style throughout these four tracks isn't a long distance from Wildfire, the production does feel a little more controlled and claustrophobic, there is still a good atmosphere created through the vocals and higher string guitar work, but there's something less affecting about it all, like they had torn the roof off in 2016 but for some reason it's been repaired or replaced. That's not a deal breaker, because the tunes here are still solid, but I'd be lying if I didn't describe this as somewhat of a disappointment.

"Trialed by Fire", the closer here, is a re-recording from the Terror Abraxas EP, and I'm juggling which of the two that I find superior; this one is slightly more atmospheric, and the cleaner vocal barks are more pronounced, but I think in terms of the production I'd go with the old one. The other three tracks are all pretty solid, especially "Violence is Golden" and "Call of the Wild" itself, which sound like outtakes from Wildfire but with that denser, cramped production I mentioned above. I don't know that they would have fared better on the full-length, they're actually a little redundant with better tracks, but they are certainly the highlights for me when I'm spinning through this, and the latter has that droned chorus part where the little guitars and counter-vocals spike out and it's pretty much the high point of the 20 minutes, an idea that I hadn't quite heard from them before. The mix is fine, the vocals standout but the instruments often seem to muddle together a little...drums, bass and rhythm guitars. That does help distinguish the leads, but I just think it felt a little more rushed and less impressive than Wildfire.

And I keep repeating that title, but hey, that's what you get when you've set my expectations so high and then tempered them a bit! Call of the Wild is decent, but other than Terror Abraxas, Deströyer 666 does not have a high success rate for me with their shorter releases. They are, to me, a full-length sort of band where I want to be blown over by that full 40-ish minute experience, sure I can lean into certain tracks on a playlist, but they put a lot more effort into the albums (obviously) and so I'd rather put my own effort into listening to them.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Wildfire (2016)

Wildfire might lean a lot more heavily into the band's thrash/speed metal side than any of the other Deströyer 666 albums, but it also feels to me like the album I had been awaiting from them for a quarter century. The most memorable and resonant production, the best songwriting, the strongest riffs, and for my money, the best K. K. Warslut vocals across their entire discography. In fact, this album is so fucking good that I was quite surprised it had any sort of divisive reaction at all; this is the once in a lifetime sort of effort that I spend endless time spinning, replaying individual tracks to hear the cool bits but also able to run through the whole 40 minutes. There's no fat to trim, it's one of the most distinct records in this whole blackened speed/thrash trend that's been the rage for the last 20 years, and it was my top heavy record of 2017.

It's got a fairly uniform style to it, but enough variation within to entertain endlessly. All performances sound amazing, but I think where this album differs slightly is in how the higher-pitched guitars are so prominent in the writing. Between the trilly speed metal lines and the bleeding tremolo picked melodies, this album reaches for the stratosphere like no other in their backlog. Bash in some bluesy, burning leads, loads of gang shouts and a diabolical, raving and barking vocal delivery that is K.K.'s best, and then a few twists and turns back into a more traditional black metal territory and you've got a real beast. Most of the cuts are instantly catchy, with a few like "White Line Fever", "Die You Fucking Pig!", "Artiglio del diavolo" and the title track which shot up to my favorite Deströyer 666 tunes within minutes of hearing them. Those brighter and yet still threatening guitar lines burrow themselves directly into your spikes & leather psyche, and the balance of the mix against the vocals is perfectly effective. The drums are crashing and splashing and yet the bottom end also thunders all over the place, with all manner of interesting beats and fills that keep your attention whenever you can break away from those riffs.

There is a hurried intensity to the whole record that's beyond engaging, and it hasn't aged a day in almost a decade since I've heard it. A few of the lyrics to songs like "Hounds at Ya Back" and "Live and Burn" are a little more cliche or straightforward, less scathing than others they've written before, but that's a minor complaint when the music itself and the EXECUTION of those lyrics is spot on. There's also a cleaner singing/guitar section in "Tamama Shud" the closer which will come out of nowhere, but it's a tribute to a fallen friend and shows the band is still capable of a surprise, not that any more surprise is needed than a nearly perfect record kicking back after seven years with a slightly modified style that feels fresh but not wholly novel since you heard traces of this on at least three of the prior full-lengths. It's the chef's kiss, if that chef just cooked your meal with a blowtorch. I mean I enjoy thousands, but this is one of those hundred or so metal records I'd be proud to be buried with.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Defiance (2009)

Defiance might have arrived after a six-year gap in releases, the longest Deströyer 666 had gone since their inception, but when it did arrive, it was like a crushing tank phalanx committed to destruction, one of the heaviest albums they've ever done while still retaining a lot of those core aesthetics. It's almost like if Phoenix Rising were forced, Alex from Clockwork Orange-style, into a chair and forced to listen to the Bolt Thrower catalogue from 1989-1995, to the point that it threaded that more warlike aspect back into their style, but in a different way than the reckless black/death of the early years. Obviously it's got a lot more dynamic range than that band, not to mention speed, but there's a similar grim purpose to tracks like "Weapons of Conquest" and "Path to Conflict", especially on the mid-paced, double-bass driven sequences.

That said, they've also got a lot of melody and airiness rising to the top here which continue to set up the material to follow, and there's a great deal of musicality here while simultaneously sounding much more muscular than Cold Steel...for an Iron Age. This is where those upper-range guitars, especially the leads really shine, with just enough flange or other effects spun onto them to make them scream out across the hellish battlescape. There are bolder, louder production aesthetics, after all the needle had moved in this regard for most of the genre, but it still sounds brazen and fiery and pissed off, just not as nasty and raw as the prior full-length because the hammering volume and intensity won't allow for it. Chris Menning aka Mersus, returning from Cold Steel..., has a great performance here, not just of technicality, but how thunderous and potent his drumming comes across in the mix, creating a foundation for the great rhythm guitar and Warslut's noxious, nihilistic vocals which also resemble Phoenix Rising to me.

I realize some folks had dropped off Deströyer 666 by this point, perhaps by the slight stylistic shifts, production standards, controversy, or geographical relocation (they'd since moved from Australia to Europe and London), but I have to admit I'm in the opposite direction, because these last couple decades have really ramped up my appreciation of the band. I already enjoyed the other full-lengths, some quite so, but Defiance just ushered in an entire new era which is never far from my stereo...not only do they check the black metal boxes I require, but this record gives me a little more of a death metal fix than I'd have expected, the sound is enormous and atmospheric, they're always willing to embellish their more predictable rhythm riffs with just a minimalistic but memorable level of melody, and lyrics that live up to the record title for sure. The longer pauses between albums would also continue, but this well worth the wait, and so too its successor.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Terror Abraxas EP (2003)

Terror Abraxas is a shorter release than the albums before it, an EP released through Iron Pegasus Records in Germany, which more or less continues the style expressed on Cold Steel... for an Iron Age, with a similar commitment to that raw production, although at points I think the vocals here are a little louder and the instrumentals a little less balanced. It's charmingly crude, however, so you can still make out everything well enough and nothing can detract from the hellish energy that their hybrid of black and thrash metal creates. But the best thing I can say is that all of the originals her are full-length worthy, had they written and released these alongside Cold Steel... then I think they'd have blended in with only a little rhythmic redundancy.

I really like the pacing here, with some faster, more volatile tunes to lead things off, especially "Those Who Dare Beyond" which has a great rhythm and riffs, plus I like K.K.'s barking over this one as those more burning, melodic lead-lines erupt. "Trialed by Fire" is another standout, a longer and more epic rack where they play around with some cleaner chanted vocals and bring back a lot of that Blood Fire Death/Hammerheart vibe, perhaps to an extent that they'd never gone before. I was also very impressed with the band's cover of Wendy Rule's "Prometheus". I had never heard of the woman, nor the song, I guess it's some sort of neofolk/pop from Australia, and I went back to listen to the original and really enjoyed it with her voice, the percussion, the bass, strings, etc. That said, it's just as awesome in the hands of Deströyer 666, they totally adapt it to their own style, with little walls of melody that connect it to the original. Pretty much the best tribute you can pay when doing a cover song, transforming it rather than copying it, showing how timeless its ideas are across numerous genres.

Ultimately, this is great stuff, the idea being to tide over the fans for a follow-up to Cold Steel..., but that would end up taking a lot longer than anyone probably thought.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Cold Steel...for an Iron Age (2002)

Cold Steel... was an interesting album because it almost does a 180 spin back from the polished Phoenix Rising back to the more feral appeals of the Violence EP. The cover art is quite primitive and forgettable (and don't get me wrong, I much prefer the black white artwork on the reissue). The production is a little more raw and searing, although not in a bad way whatsoever, because the musicianship and songwriting are still on the save level of the previous album, and for my money, there's a lot more personality here. Regardless of whatever tweaks the band has made to its musical formula throughout the decades, and whichever of its fundamental styles becomes the focus, K.K. Warslut and Deströyer 666 are full on-board the underground.

This record is great. I liked the two before it well enough, but this one just has a certain pulse of charming vitriol coursing throughout it that draws me in. Warslut's vocals are definitely more natural and devilish, with a little more versatility than on Phoenix, perhaps they've leaned a little more into the carnal, traditional black metal rasp, but something about them appeals, and I'm saying that even after praising how well-implemented they were the last time out. The writing here is definitely black with little threads of speed and thrash metal running through it, a portent of later records for sure, but also tying them back to the beginning. The guitar tone here is more incendiary and ear-piercing, but you still have a fine balance with lots of the tremolo-picking and melodies and then those thicker walls of Bathory chords wrestling with the attention beneath. You get a couple little licks that remind me of stuff like vintage Slayer, but there's also a lot of material where the Marduk blast-fests take off ("Sons of Perdition").

Similar to Phoenix Rising, I feel like the deeper you go into the track list, the more interesting and atmospheric the material becomes, so a lot of my favored tunes like "The Calling" and "Witch Hunter" thrive back there. You definitely want to track down a reissued version, not only for the superior cover artwork but also a couple extra tunes like "The Dragon" that fit right in and are also pretty good. Some of the production and riffing here serves as yet another foreshadow to Wildfire (I'll explain why that is important to me later), and while it's not as clear and technically proficient sounding as the album before it, I'll take the more sinister sincerity of this one just because it's more memorable and resonant. In fact, this might be the first album where I went past 'liking' the band's output to actively being more interested in following them.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Phoenix Rising (2000)

It's only a matter of moments into Phoenix Rising until you realize that Deströyer 666 has raised its intensity level by a considerable degree. New drummer Jarro/Deceiver metes out some hyper-blasting akin to faster European bands as a hallmark of the opener "Rise of the Predator", but to the Australians' they don't focus on this entirely, using it only as a weapon to create contrasts with the more middle paced rhythms; consistently throughout the entire album. There's still a lot of Bathory vibe here with the tempos, with a lot of very straightforward riffs in a Marduk mold (especially those blasted parts), but they've got a ratio of about 1:1 for some memorable rhythm guitars and then others you'd heard before and would quickly forget.

Altogether, the album has pretty great production, with no muddling or imbalance to the levels of the instruments, and a clear delivery which highlights all of them. The guitar tone isn't anything too striking, but it's got a good balance where the tremolo-picked melodies and lower rhythms feel evenly distributed, with the bass poking through all the time on its own crusade. The drums are a pretty noticeable technical improvement and these also sit evenly, while the vocals are at the fore, but not enough to smother any of the playing. I think this was K.K.'s best performance to date, especially his sustained rasps, they just seem a little more in tune with the music and slice a little harder when you pay attention to the diabolic details. The songs are all solid, though some of my favorites are nestled deeper into the track-list like the swaggering, almost folkish black metal of "Ride the Solar Winds" and "The Birth of Tragedy", or "Lone Wolf Winter" with its urgent sense of melodies and an atmospheric vibe that foreshadows records like Wildfire.

Also, that song's title and lyrics seem like a callback to the cover art for the first full-length; and speaking of callbacks, they have a new version of "The Eternal Glory of War" from the Violence EP and it's quite tidied up. This will please some, and piss off others, but I think this is the more effective incarnation. However, I'd say that about 5 of the tunes here are top notch, while others are held back by a few generic riffs that don't do much for the imagination, but at least have the production to maximize their impact. And there isn't that much of a gulf in the quality, I can definitely sit through all 40 minutes without any impatience; Phoenix Rising is consistent and well-balanced enough to get its points across and catapult the band into more of a contender against their Scandinavian and American peers.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/ 

Deströyer 666 - Unchain the Wolves (1997)

Unchain the Wolves is an improvement on the EP in several ways, as the band converts more directly into a black metal sound with influences from others like Bathory or Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, and creates a much more immersive, structural and atmospheric sound. Still, it retains a little of the savagery from the earlier years, at any moment willing to bust out into some great speed/thrash rhythms and there are parts here that only separate themselves from the EP via the cleaner production aesthetics. I always thought this one had a super cheesy look to the cover, having still found their band name silly back in the 90s and then the wolf on the cover reminds me of something I'd get on a T-shirt at some smoke shop in the mall when I was a teenager.

With age, though, I can start to appreciate these things, I love the white wolf and the simplistic and menacing nature, and have even warmed up to the name. So too has the music grown on me over the years; again, this is not a favorite in their catalogue, but it's absolutely a solid listen for some more straightforward black metal. They almost overwhelm you with the opening track, "Genesis to Genocide", 10+ minutes long with this cool, frosty extended intro that features low pianos, brooding ambiance and sets up a surge of sea-storm riffs that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Blood Fire Death. This is not the only 'epic' on the album, the title track will take you by surprise with its great, majestic atmospheric sequences with a little bit of droning feedback, reverbed clean vocal lines, and a nice escalation into some thundering riffs and melodies, truly if Quorthon had written a record while touring the outback, this is what it may have ended up sounding like...although the production K.K. Warslut and crew get here is a lot more current with the 90s standards.

Otherwise, the album is full of straightforward ragers like "Australian and Anti-Christ" (great title) that convey a lot more of the hybrid of black, speed and thrash metal that the band will eventually revert to almost exclusively in later decades. K.K.s vocals are the same barking holocaust as the EP, though he will also turn in a few more decrepit rasps. I love some of the sped-up Celtic Frost style riffs and the punkish, hellish energy. This record has a few more standouts that I'd usually include on a D666 playlist like "Damnation's Pride" and "Six Curses from a Spiritual Wasteland", and again I'd compliment the production; the leads spike out from the rhythm sections, nothing's too complicated, just devastating, and the drumming and vocals really breathe throughout the record. I'm sure some of their original audience rued this transformation here, but there's still enough primacy that it doesn't feel like any sort of sell-out or anything. Good record, if not great, one I still break out from time to time.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Deströyer 666 - Violence is the Prince of this World EP (1995)

Though I wasn't initially too impressed with this band, Deströyer 666 was one I got in on the ground floor with, having heard this first EP and their debut through a local CD import shop. Australian black metal was a bit of a novelty, I had heard Bestial Warlust and this band around the same time and that was all, and my initial impressions were that it mirrored the Canadian war metal stuff a lot more than the Scandinavian bands I was completely enthralled by. I think that still holds true for this early material, but K.K. Warslut and company were definitely set on a path that would evolve for the better, and I think you can hear that even on Violence is the Prince of This World. It might not one of my favorites in their legacy, but this shit sounds positively savage even 30 years later.

There are definitely those blasted and soulless passages reminiscent of the war metal stuff, but there is a little more structure to some of the riffing, based around a vile thrashing aesthetic, a little bit of death metal also in the churn of the rhythm guitar. When they do resort to that primitive blasting, they retain a little bit of atmosphere through the riff choices, which to their credit, are a lot more interesting to follow than some other 'blast and forget' bands of the time, including arguably some of Marduk's material, though this stuff isn't as intense as something like Panzer Division Marduk. The guitars wind through these sections like serpents, and I also liked the warlike presence of the bass guitar which actually recalled for me some of the earlier Voivod records if they were just pitched at a higher speed. The drumming is a little bit of a clatter but it's also really well done for its day, effortlessly blasting or rolling out the double bass patterns to support the snaky distortion on the guitars.

I think the real star of the show here is how Warslut's nihilistic barking, which sounds like a midway point between black, death, and Germanic proto-black thrash styles, fuses itself so well to those frillier guitars and the primordial beating of the drums. This is the component that feels like the nuclear holocaust you're seeing on the cover art, and he definitely earns his nickname with it. Another strong point is that they definitely avoid monotony with some change-ups, for instance "Song for a Devil's Son" doesn't follow the same course as "An Endless Stream of Bombers", the band was working to create distinct tunes while merging them all together under the same banner of aggression. The mix can be a little uneven, some tunes coming across rawer than others, and it's certainly not their most coherent material, but I've always thought of this as 'war metal' with a little more memorable structure to latch on to, and whilst its one of the last things I'll reach for when I crave Deströyer 666, there's a timeless, vulgar charm to it which I cannot ignore.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Killengod - Into the Ancient Moon (1998)

Killengod's obscure sophomore album comes across quite different up front. Gone are the weird, surreal alien things from the debut's cover, and this in fact looks as if it would be more of a black metal album, or at least it would if the logo weren't the same. Actually, when I was listening to the synth intro "Ode to an Ancient Moon", I was fully expecting them to erupt with blasting, snarls and tremolo picked melodies. After all, the first record was a bit trendy with what extreme metal was happening in 1995, so why not the 1998 album too? But this turns out not to be the case, because where the aesthetics and production of Into the Ancient Moon might differ from the debut, it's still very much brutal death metal with a Floridian foundation, only I feel a bit more of that New York intensity creeping into it here.

You still get the Deicide-like split vocals, alternating between the guttural and snarl, and they do it with a lot of character, and occasionally in tandem. The riffs, though, are far more ambitious, dabbling in more technical, varied patterns which are a smattering of thrash and brutal death, and shifting around enough with the drums that it occasionally sounds a little cluttered, with walls of riffs crashing into each other. There is a lot more technique, little pinches and melodies abound, and they also use a little more synth which recalls some of the early Nocturnus. The instruments all sounds fairly good for something at this budget, but the guitars are a bit sharper and more cutting than on the first album. There are also a few spurts of more melodic, simple riffing almost like a crude melodeath, as in the bridge of "Masquerade the Masters", but it's not enough to distract from the more abusive, intense battery they usually engage with.

Tunes like "Lord of Whores" should still sate fans of the first two Deicide records, or maybe None So Vile, and I found there were a fun, bouncy, primal grooves, although in terms of chord or note selection, this album doesn't really stand out so much. But it's competent, punishing Down Under death metal that will probably surprise those hunting deep through the underground for some competence, and their willingness to make the small aesthetic changes shows that they were a group keen on evolution and progression. It simply never progressed beyond this point...

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

Killengod - Transcendual Consciousness (1995)

With all the love foisted upon obscure death metal of the 80s and 90s, down to the demo level, it's hard to believe that this Australian band, Killengod, goes unnoticed. Sure, the cover art is hideous, the name of the band is a bit dumb, but the production and songs on this 1995 debut, Transcendual Consciousness (whatever that means) are tight enough that I can imagine those into a more semi-brutal acts of that time period like Malevolent Creation or Deicide would get a kick out of this. Come to think of it, the name actually seems to me like a lazy alternative to Deicide, and the band has a lot of stylistic comparisons with Benton and company. I'll even go further to say that the production job on this CD is even better than half of what Scott Burns was putting out, so there it is.

This is equal parts fast brutality and groove-based death metal which is heavily rooted in the Florida style, with perhaps a sliver of sensibility towards bands like Biohazard when they go into a breakdown, though this wasn't a foreign technique to death metal itself either. The riffs chug along in engaging if forgettable patterns, and they aren't afraid to throw some weirdness over the top like flange ("Soul Mutilation"). They use a dual vocal, the most apt comparison to Deicide, with the snarl and guttural going off in constant unison, and it sounds pretty nasty and silly at the same time, but I doubt the latter was the intent. The drums are damn solid, with steady double kick, fun fills and some blasting, though never so much that it becomes monotonous, and they also seem to stick with the guttural in those parts and it sounds fairly awesome. Like their Floridian forebears Deicide and Cannibal Corpse, there is definitely also a bit of a thrash influence here which directly translates into some of the riffing, but much of it meat-fisted and brutal death metal, but lacking the overt complexity some of the bands were starting to branch into.

The lead aren't great, but they add a nice dimension of messiness over the thrust of the low end, and the bass is warbling all over the place. The band actually did their best to vary this one up, they'll have a clean acoustic part here or some rhythmic shifts that sound like nothing else on the album as in "Experimental Evidence", which sounds more like a brute thrash tune via Sacred Reich or Demolition Hammer. The title track also steps off into the Twilight Zone with a weird mix of groove, thick bass lines, chugging build-ups and a cool, weird ambient intro which sounds like water running, bells being rung and some warped samples of alien pleasure. Transcendual Consciousness deserves far more credit than I'd give it just by first impressions, for such an unknown record it sounds quite competent, and the songs are frenetic and fun, especially for a time when the chugging and grooves were still in vogue. If you enjoy that period of death metal when Suffocation, Cryptopsy and the aforementioned Florida acts were fast becoming gods, you could do much worse than check this one out if you can find it.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

Faceless Burial - Multiversal Abbatoir EP (2018)

Multiversal Abbatoir is one of those releases that ironically suffers from having such a strong opening piece, in this case the creepy and haunting, brief acoustic piece "Sluiced in Celestial Sewerage", just under two minutes, which is in my estimation better than all of the actual death metal tracks that comprise the rest of the EP. However, that's not to say the band's harder material is bad at all, it's indeed solid, it just lacks the potential that a return to such atmospherics might have lent it, and it's a cautionary warning, when kicking off your recording with something so starkly different, be prepared that you might be dealing in some degree of disappointment. It's a self set snare, but one that Faceless Burial don't fall in quite so much as a few other death and black metal bands I've come across.

Other than that, though, these Australians prove themselves a competent old school mashup of sounds you might recall from the Floridian scene, perhaps with a bit of the earlier Dutch masters, bands from Death and Obituary to Asphyx and Sinister, with a little Malevolent Creation and Morbid Angel mixed in for good measure. The guitars are chunky and clunky, cycling between clinical, evil harmonized riffs, fleshier low end grooves that almost remind me of a more jazzy and experimental, broken Blessed Are the Sick, with a dash of Gorguts' late 90s metamorphosis. They cram quite a lot into each tune in term of tectonic tempo shifting, living up to the cataclysmic cover artwork, and they keep the listener on the edge of his or her seat, straddling the abyss of their infernal creation. That's not to say they write all the best riffs, a lot of these will prove minor variations on others that you've heard many time, but they inject a lot of controlled chaos in how they pattern them out which at least keeps you interested since there's no chance they're going to repeat themselves unto oblivion...dynamism is the key to the compositions' effectiveness.

With the sturdy, but natural drumming, thick pummeling rhythmic underbelly and dour, sustained growls, I quite dug listening through tunes like "Piteous Sepulchre (of Amentia)" and "Fistulated Beyond Recognition", although again they don't pack in a lot of breakout riffs, just a lot that sound cool when they're crashing into one another. Overall, though they don't really offer that same blend of dynamic death and doom, I'd liken Faceless Burial to their countrymen Disentomb in how they never lapse into an excess of formulaic writing. This EP, despite its shorter length, keeps churning and blasting you in the face repeatedly so you feel as if you've just witnessed some seismic rupture of the Earth beneath you, magma licking at your chin and paranoia taking over that everyone and everything you love is about to be swallowed up into the crust, and a lot of the wild lead guitars are so hit or miss that it only snowballs the chaos. So while I really would have liked a few returns to those wicked, excellent acoustics to round this all out as an experience, this still gets my seal of approval as something in which the creators have expended some effort to keep you guessing and keep you terrified.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://facelessburial.bandcamp.com/

Cerebral Secretion - Infinite Realms of Decay (2018)

Cerebral Secretion's full-length debut has such an awesome cover that I instantly wanted to make myself like it, for the superficial reasons we always see such things and want to be immersed into a realm of horror and atmosphere. Judging by the logo, though, that wasn't exactly what I should have been expected, and indeed, Infinite Realms of Decay is knuckle dragging slam death metal of the Amputated Vein Records, not so meaty or brute-tastic as a lot of other bands in the field, and capable of some dynamic change-ups that actually rescue it from the sodden sort of mediocrity it could have suffered. Hell, this is even something I might recommend for fans of the style, largely due to the few differences it cultivates, but I was nonetheless disappointed at the disconnect I had between how it looked and how it sounded.

Right away, you get a sample about suicide and depression which isn't about a bunch of ghastly green-flame spewing cultists around an altar of cadavers in front of a haunted manor (and yes, I do realize there's a dude hanging from a tree behind the logo). So I was taken out of that notion immediately for some slow, chugging, grooving death metal smothered in the usual guttural stylings and some piggish snarls and squeals to offset them. This is the dominant form of writing on most of the tracks here, and they do it in a somewhat accessible fashion, not unlike UK's Ingested, although also not quite as memorable. This is balanced off with tech death excursions involving faster blasting, and spastic guitar melodies that go in one ear and out the other because they sound so much like so many others in the game. However, for me, the most distinct part of this is when they break out into these slower, atmospheric grooves with a simple, slightly effected melody that instantly created this feel of some slogging djent with a catchy line above it, the sort of area of a tune that would replace something chorus-like, and they do have a knack for making these specific parts stand out above the rest of the recording, so the listener is longing for them.

Nothing immaculate, but they did boost my estimation of the album overall. I also heard a few little glimpses towards old school progressive death metal that helped round it out, and it has a few tunes that I just outright appreciated, like "Chasms Carved from Darkness" with its pop-out, clinical melodic guitars. They also pepper the record with a few interesting instrumentsl like "Inconsistent Wiring" and "Passages to Vehement Planets", and their flangy, minimal, atonal guitars, or "Detach" which is like a super brief, 16 second injection of spastic mathcore dissonance. The Australians definitely excel at breaking up the experience and distributing the surprises so that you are never faced with some boring, exceedingly repetitive chuggression, and when you've got all that wrapped up into a 33 minute, concise experience, it's hard to feel too let down. So I did enjoy Infinite Realms of Decay to an extent, but you can help an old creep for wanting it to sound a little eerier, like the first impression you get when gazing at the great artwork. If you want 'catchy' slam that isn't too ridiculous or numbingly heavy, with a clear musical bent, check it out.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://cerebralsecretion.bandcamp.com/releases

Dracula - Black Wings Over Translyvania 7" (2014)

I don't think it's any big secret that Australians Dracula are a group openly paying tribute to the earlier works of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate, so let's get kick the elephant out of the room right up front: Dracula sounds a lot like King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. Foremost, the vocalist uses the same falsetto style as the man himself, although you might pick up on marginal differences due to the Count's underlying accent and natural timbre. There's also the intentional implementation of dingy, throwback production values that strap the two tracks here into an 80s time machine, for better or worse. They're not just about aping the actual musical style, but relying heavily on their audience to share in the nostalgia. Do you remember the first time you heard Fatal Portrait? Melissa? Don't Break the Oath? Where you were? What you were doing? Who you were with? What shoddy cassette deck or record player you were using? I'm not at all trying to exclude younger fans who first encountered the Danish gods on CD or in digital format, but Black Wings Over Transylvania is certainly a 7" which seeks to dredge up the flaws, imperfections and by extension the personality of those old recordings and the environment in which they were initially experienced.

Tinny, dramatic rhythm guitar hooks draw a mix of comparisons to Denner, Shermann and LaRocque, at times swerving a little more closely to the playing of one or the other sides of the KD legacy but ultimately finding a happy medium, with both the meanness of Fate and the gloss and glamer of the solo band. Fed from the same trick or treat basket of NWOBHM, speed and proto power metal as their influences. Leads are even airier, tinny and piercing, and they use a lot of briefer flights of melody to glitz up the verses in the title track. Bass lines here are a bit primitive and tend largely towards just pumping along with a few notes misplaced from the rhythm patterns, par for the course of their times, but not terribly significant. The drums are solid in the first track but felt a bit more cluttered in "The Baroness", largely because that has a looser structure through part of its run where the guitars are drawing atmosphere unto themselves. Count Hawlok's falsetto doesn't deviate much, it's tonally appropriate to the brightness of the guitars below it, but he doesn't intersperse a lot of lower-range, grimy character here like Diamond does on some of his classic recordings, nor does he shriek out much by the way of the memorable lines that built a 35+ year career for their forebear.

As drifting back ground music, Black Wings Over Transylvania is a passable paean to the masters which doesn't really suffer from any delusions of purpose, but where so many such loving Xeroxes of classic records fail is that they don't write music that can really stand on its own beyond just that niche crowd which is looking to catch up with its childhood through a source other than the one that was....you guessed it, actually there during that childhood. Kingdom Come might have borrowed the aesthetics of Led Zeppelin to an unhealthy extent, but at least for a few years there they were writing absolutely fantastic songs in that style. Primal Fear has more Priest in its DNA than some might wish to admit, but they put such power into it that it occasionally felt like you were hearing the original at a new, contemporary level. Put quite bluntly, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to listen to these two songs when you've got a copy of anything Kim Peter Bendix released in the 80s on hand, because even the least impressive songs of that hot streak eviscerate anything in these two. That's not to say that I think Dracula are bad, or that the material has any major issue beyond its obvious derivative nature, but when you've already got groups like In Solitude, Portrait, Attic and Trial which managed to start with such a strong KD/Fate influence and then spin off into fresher strains, a project like this faces a steep uphill battle, one it hasn't yet even begun to scale.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Light Force - Mystical Thieves (1988)

I hadn't listened to Mystical Thieves in approximately 25 years, since I discovered the cassette haunting a discount bin at a record store at the local mall, and thought the cover artwork was cool enough to take it home for a few bucks. Pure Metal Records had a bit of a reputation as a Christian metal label, sure, but at the time I was around 15-16 and religiously independent (having walked out on confirmation at my parents' church), I was never one to really hold this as a sole reason to avoid a band. In fact, I had a number of pretty decent Christian thrash and heavy metal tapes in my stash, with names like Vengeance Rising, Deliverance, and so forth, and for all external purposes the Light Force sophomore seemed like it might join them...

...which, of course, was wishful thinking, because Mystical Thieves sucks. The few among you who might even be aware of this band probably recognize it as Australian Steve Rowe's previous band before he launched Mortification, a heavier thrash/death metal outfit which has gone on to produce a rather long and prolific career which even had some material licensed to labels like Nuclear Blast. I am not a big fan of that band, never have been... a few of the earlier CDs like Scrolls of the Megilloth had some potential there, but although the lyrics were fairly Christian all along, the band seemed to dumb itself down on subsequent releases through the 90s. Love them or hate them, though, this man soldiers on; irregardless of what the extreme metal audience thinks, there is no question he is pretty serious and unshakeable in his commitment to both his faith and his bog standard death metal. All the power to him, or Power to him...you get the point. But speaking of 'power', Light Force is considered one of those earlier examples of power metal which was difficult to distinguish from the later phase NWOBHM of the time...certainly it has little of the fire and fury of the USPM in the 80s, or little fire and fury AT ALL.

Rowe was the bassist here, and he's perhaps the album's most overt culprit of Steve Harris' playing in Iron Maiden, with loads of pluggy, driving triplets that combine with the melodic guitar harmonies to produce an atmosphere highly redolent of things like Number of the Beast, Powerslave, Piece of Mind and Somewhere in Time; whether trudging along or erupting in an anthem speed much like they do in the album's titular opener. The problem here is that the riffs are just so bloody uninspired, that even as a teen I found them mind numbingly boring and predictable in an era that was producing works like Thundersteel, Master Control, No Exit or even Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, which is more or less everything some of these songs attempt, but exponentially superior. The beginnings, middles and ends of these cuts are quite uninspiring while a little TOO inspired, and there are lots of choices that don't really make much sense, seemingly amateur like when Rowe starts frenzying on the bass at the end of the opening cut, only to have it all just...whisked away.

Even worse, the singer here is just so painfully average that it feels as if he's extremely hung-over and just trying to make anything stick. Not the worst intonation I've heard, but he hangs out too much in that upper mid-range, sounding sloshed and entirely incapable of tackling a proper chorus. Hell, if you're going to be doing a Maiden-ish thing, wouldn't you want a singer who can dominate the material with some range and power? There are particular tracks where he gets more potent to the degree that it doesn't come off offensively lazy, but generally these are also tunes where the rhythm guitars  also come together in a more powerful, if not any more memorable combination like in "Crossfire" or the more forceful, speed-metal approach of "City Streets", which is a style I wish they would have adopted on far more of the album, since it shows a meaner edge and kind of abandons the aimless airiness of the title track. But then, there is very little consistency on the record for which they could capitalize on such momentum..."Metal Missionaries" feels like so much tired mid paced Judas Priest worship, while "Searching" had a few insipid callbacks to Sabbath stuff.

If the music is weak, the production is weaker, with Rowe's bass level set just about the same as the rhythm guitar, stealing some of its bite without supplementing enough low end thunder. It all feels thin and wimpy, and the drums sound like they're being played half the time by banging on tin cans and bicycle chains. Very little force or muscle. Perhaps the only part of the music that felt slightly invigorating were when the leads broke out over some of the rhythms in the bridges, they definitely have that feel of wild abandon so precious to traditional 80s speed, heavy and power metal, but it's such a chore to get around to them that who even cares? In the end, Mystical Thieves is just dull and third rate Australian metal with nothing going for it when you could just put on the Hobbs' Angel of Death and hear how it really needed to be done. Rowe would move on to bigger and better things, because Mortification was certainly a step up from this, but the Light Force sophomore seems in retrospect just a waste of decent artwork with an evocative 70s/80s Michael Whelan feel.

Verdict: Fail [3.5/10] (No, no, no mind control, it's a Satanic craze!)

Salvation - Winter Wrath [demo] (2014)

Were I to deify the 'good old boys' of the black metal medium, then Salvation's Winter Wrath demo would likely be the sort of libation paid to them on the various solstices and equinoxes. The DNA of a recording like this is quite plainly linked back to those important,  formative works of a Darkthrone, Hellhammer, Bathory or even a Deathcrush-era Mayhem and there is little of anything across the span of six tracks that proves otherwise. But this Australian one man act pays tribute through more than mere chord choices or 'sounds', but in the very aesthetic choices of its DIY, no-fucks-given mentality which is reflective of about 15 years worth of deep underground demos and records from bands that shun any sense of studio wizardry, refined craftsmanship, or progressive tendencies in an unending quest to capture the primacy of its inspirations like a fly in amber...only Salvation goes so far as to render a lot of its savage spiritual precursors 'polished' by comparison to the raunch and ruin found on this CD-R.

This is essentially a rehearsal-level demo recording comprised of six tracks, half of which are intros and interludes and the other full-on bursts of full-on spite which shift between melodic/melancholic chord patterns ("Winter Wrath" itself) redolent of the Scandinavian second wave, and a nastier set of  Hellhammer/Bathory barrages ("Strife") which date back to an even more primordial origin in the 80s. The music is unfailingly simple and merciless, and that's rather the point. Stylistic parameters here are indeed pretty narrow, but that's not to say that Noctarth, the sole musician responsible lacks the wherewithal to incorporate a little variation, to make the song structures more entertaining than they might otherwise prove if he beat on the instruments for redundant 7-9 minute epics. On some fundamental level, while we've heard these chord progressions many times in the past, and the rasped nihilism of the vocals is nothing new, and the style lacks any semblance of nuance, there's still a soft spot there for the lightless, raw fury these recordings espouse, and Winter Wrath, for any of its faults, does function solely on that level. It looks like it sounds, there are no gimmicks and its author, who is not visiting his first rodeo here, has absolutely no delusion about what it represents.

That said, there are a few components to this which felt a little lacking. For one, of the three shorter instrumental pieces on the demo, I felt like only the first was a proper set-up and companion to the majority of the music. The doomed, drifting harmonies of "Forgotten Fields" and wall of saddened feedback and noises which make up the "Outro" are not unpleasant listens, but I didn't feel like they really contributed to the feel of the CD-R overall. The other issue here is the drumming, which is as raucous and cluttered as you'd expect on a lot of these styles of tapes and demos. There were points where I felt like the timing was a little messy, but really it's just that disparate production of the snares, crashing cymbals and bass drums during the more intense batteries which gave me the impression I was rolling down a rocky hill while trapped in a crate. Fortunately the beats don't really drown out the simple, clobbering bombast of the riffs or vocals, but they were certainly distractions on a few of the tunes when I had the volume cranked. Last, while I have no aversion to really basic riffs like the black-punk used to fuel the namesake "Salvation" track, these were just a little too mundane to really carry that track.

But bear in mind: this is a very limited release, not intended for mass consumption or to be writ large across the black metal universe, and while I can fault it for its ground-level approach to songwriting and production, what it doesn't lack is sincerity. It's not as solitude-stricken or atmospheric as some of its once-prolific Australian kin like Striborg or Drowning in the Light. But no concessions are made, no filtering of purpose; this is the product of the dingy, murky basement from which it was spawned, and for a lot of embedded underworld souls, that is really quite enough. Winter Wrath is not going to win Noctarth a medal, and it's preemptively drowned out by so very many of its peers, but there's something satisfying to me that no matter how far the genre's elder statesmen have evolved their musical goals, there are guys out there putting together stuff like this.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Ignivomous - Contragenesis (2012)

The artwork on my CD booklet for this is incredibly dim, so I was glad to score a brighter digital pic for the review. Really, though, just adjust your eyes, for when the pyroclasmic finale of humanity arrives, it won't be pretty. All roiling lava, sinking structures, smoke-filled sky and lungs slowly breathing their last. Then darkness. Contragenesis, being the counter to creation, is mildly more vivid and exciting in texture than that suffocating imagery might hint, but there is nothing comfortable about this record, just a damned consistent pummeling of the skull packed with tension and dynamics, a Mortal Throne of Nazarene sitting in the second row at a demolition derby and hurling popcorn at the destruction below. And if Death Transmutation hadn't been an ample enough effort to convince you of Ignivomous' magma-spewing audacity, this one surely secures their spot as one of the chief retro-brutal death metal exports of all the Australian continent.

Contragenesis' production is perhaps the best thing about it, with these caustic, crushing flows of riffing fuzz that cascade across a number of low end, tremolo picked harmonies that are so fat sounding I can barely comprehend how they manage to fit them over the dextrous drumming without the amps exploding. Loads of low end grooves round out the pacing, and just about every time they set up some bristling new progression they manage to mold the listener's imagination back to excitement with some sort of endtimes aural dopamine drug that constantly refreshes you, no matter how tired you might be of hearing the subterranean death metal craze of the new 'teens. Vocals capture all that cavernous resonance of a Craig Pillard or Ross Doland, and while that's probably not the sickest or most distinctive of styles so many years after the originals were first spawned forth, they do such a good job mixing these to the guitars and drums that it they sound fucking monolithic. The bass does tend to blend too much into the rhythm tracks, and the frilly little leads peppered sporadically among the compositions could be a little louder and in the face, but otherwise Contragenesis is one of the best sounding throwback death metal gems in my entire collection...

Now, this is not a 'riff' band. They have a hundred of the things, but they're not individually impressive or varied enough to really make it an album where you'd pick out particular songs to throw on a mix for your new girlfriend. No, Ignivomous once again demands that you sit there and take each molten spray in the face, endless gushing 'gasms of melted matter; but for what it's worth, there is certainly a level of complexity and nuance with what they do...these are busier patterns than your normal cave evil, and the constant threat of leads or end-phrase embellishments keep it interesting. Contragenesis might have lacked some of the surprise and malevolence of its predecessor, but it very nearly compensates in that it's a tighter effort with a meatier tone that sounds ridiculously morbid and voluptuous bursting out the speakers. I'm not sure how long their style will last without some tweaking and progression between releases (there is a little here from the first), but in the meantime this is just a corpulent libation to both Finnish ghoulishness and the darker, more impenetrable side of 90s NYDM which should not be ignored by anyone who revels in such claustrophobic, evil flatulence from below the Earth's crust.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (inimical to existence)

https://www.facebook.com/Ignivomous

Ignivomous - Blood and Mercury (2011)

I've seen discussions which place Ignivomous uncomfortably close to being waived away as an Incantation knockoff, but even though I think that's such an obvious influence in their sound, I have really enjoyed the total package of what this band brings to the table. Their influences have themselves moved on to a more accessible (but still excellent) sort of songwriting aesthetic, and Ignivomous simply takes a healthy heaping of that cavernous, turbulent early to mid-90s NYDM, slathers it in some Finnish viscera from the same time period, and then produces the audio equivalent of sentient, roiling magma that wishes very much to consume its listeners flesh. Otherworldly, hostile and consistent are all qualities that come to mind when experiencing their debut Death Transmutations, and so too do they apply to the earlier material featured on this comp.

Blood and Mercury is more or less a 'perfect' collection of the band's pre-full length recordings, perfect in that it spares a lazy arse like myself from having to track them down individually. The Path of Attrition demo (2007), Eroded Void of Salvation EP (2008) and a split track they did with Tzun Tzu are gathered up and presented in chronological order, then topped off with a previously unheard cut called "Corpse of the Redeemer". Nothing unexpected, but low end, grinding death metal with a fibrous, diseased tone to those rhythm guitars which possess an unerring level of anger redolent of war metal bands like Blasphemy, only affixed with the Craig Pillard-like guttural vocals and primal aesthetics more prevalent on the first few Incantation albums. There's a natural dissonance incurred through the tuning and tone alone, but it's not as if the Australians are playing a slew of unusual riffs here, this is all rather straightforward from the blasted side to the more sparing, death/doom passages. Bass lines are engraved into the riff progressions, but there is still a 'hovering' din of the low end over the ripping flesh guitars, while the drums are feisty and energetic but not so polished or soulless as you'd find on a modern tech death recording.

If I were to gauge the quality of songwriting here to that of the debut or its successor, then Blood and Mercury does represent the weakest in their career. There isn't a lot of natural malevolence here, nor are the patterns much more than acceptable for the genre, trying perhaps a little too hard to pass on production alone. Not that I expect a sense of melody when listening through death metal of this style, but sometimes the guitars are too muddied and sporadic sounding to really consider the axis of notation upon which they trudge, so there's a lot of sameness and running on here precluded only by minor production shifts between the releases that make up the comp. I actually found that they progressed in quality, with the tumultous closer offering the more compelling structure with that noisy feedback and distant whispered chanting that arrive in the bridge segue. Death Transmutation wasn't wildly varied, but it was stronger overall, with riffing components that translated into evil signals in my brave and just felt oppressive and so, so ugly. This is ultimately one for the collectors, not as an introduction, but at least they ensured that it was an 'all-in-one' deal and you wouldn't have to further track down a bunch of obscure cuts.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10] (your flock of wretchedness)

https://www.facebook.com/Ignivomous

Erebus Enthroned - Temple Under Hell (2014)

If the incredibly distinct art style here seems familiar, it's probably that you've seen the work of Russia's Denis Forkas Kostromitin on the latest Behemoth album, The Satanist, or perhaps on the debuts of lesser known acts like Altars and Wrathprayer. I find it incredibly oblique yet alluring, and while I've no idea whether he just has it commissioned or he actually sits through the albums in advance and uses them to summon up imagery, they're almost always a lock for the sounds they herald. The Erebus Enthroned sophomore Temple Under Hell is no exception, a murky concoction of black metal extremity which is true to the purpose of 2011's Night's Black Angel: lightless nihilism, fleshy and misanthropic dissonance, no source of comfort or happiness or warmth anywhere.

In some ways I might define this disc as 'bog standard' it certain doesn't reach far beyond the bounds of its genre, and thus you'll only discern slight differences in production from other works in the field. I certainly felt a few traces of De Mysteriis dom Sathanas-era Mayhem on the first album, and those remain prevalent here, though the music has a bit of an awkward, swarthy eeriness to it that reminds me of the last 3-4 efforts from another Enthroned (the Belgian one). Riffs vary between all-out assaults of cavernous tremolo picked patterns to rolling, churning chords being crested by sprays of gleaming dissonance (as in "Trisagion"), but this whole fucking thing is infernally dark and impenetrable, masked with a caul of gloominess, brutality, and occult hunger. Anyone remember the 'black pudding' monster from D&D? Okay, if those things could wear headphones, this is what they'd probably listen to while they're slinking along the cellars, crypts and corridors of Abyssal shrines and torture chambers. The album title is just too accurate, and if you don't come out of the music feeling less hopeful for your future than you went into it, then congratulations, you are fucking immune to the affectations of the black metal genre.

It's not incredibly unique, once again having components that are drawn from an obvious source or three, but where it might lack in nuance or creativity it compensates with harrowing effectiveness. Plenty of details in the vocal performance, which ranges from growls and rasps to haunted howls and groans, basically whatever manifestations of pure evil the drummer/singer 'N' conjures forth straight form the nether. Guy sounds like a living digderidoo in the middle of the title track, which is perhaps the most explosive piece though it drags a little long at nine minutes. Also want to comment that the bass tone here is great, nice and loud and gives you a morbid substrate for the thinner, dissonant driving guitars that fly all over it; while the drums are more than up to the savage standard of the genre. Blasting effortlessly, but also creating a vast calamity upon which the instruments are forced to sit uncomfortable. Really, Temple Under Hell is just another 'total package' sort of black metal album which should draw in purists who can listen beyond the fact that they probably own this already through its ancestral bloodlines to the mid 90s. Greatness? Perhaps not yet, but I'd say these New South Welshmen have edged out the first album with this offering. Goes well with black candlelight and the consumption of a still-beating human heart.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] 

http://www.seancerecords.com/erebusenthroned/