Holy shit! I’m not sure what I was really expecting from Hemotoxin, being I had never heard them before, and I was going into their sophomore album, Biological Enslavement, completely blind (deaf?) to what they were about; but I’ll be damned if Hemotoxin have not only crafted a righteously, kick-ass album in Biological Enslavement, but have delivered an album clearly to be on many a year end list in eight or nine months from now.

Bursting with intricate complexity, fluid melody, and captivating dynamics galore. This Pittsburg, California quartet takes the viciousness found in the debuts of their Bay Area thrash forefathers, (i.e. Bonded by Blood, Kill ‘em All, The Legacy, Forbidden Evil, The Ultra Violence, & even Seven Churches) and melds it to a ‘90’s progressive death metal skeleton, (i.e. Death, Atheist, early Cynic, Pestilence, & Anacrusis) then wraps this skeleton in the flesh of today’s technical death wizardry. If you needed a more clear aural picture, then imagine members of Obscura, Necrophagist, and Fallujah forming an Exodus-styled thrash band and using the last four albums of the Death catalog, for influence/inspiration. Sounds awesome, right? Well, it is, Biological Enslavement is that damn good.

From the short, pummeling instrumental intro of “Decadence”, to the Cynic/Death beatdown of “Minus Human”, or the thrashing of “Bleak Prognosis”, with its Dragonforce-styled solo acrobatics, to the simply flat-out stellar musicianship of “Forgotten Faces”, “The Alchemist”, and the stunning instrumental “A Journey Through Dreams”, Biological Enslavement delivers in spades. Trying to illustrate this album is a bit of a conundrum for me, to break down and define the great tracks, catchy riffs, and memorable licks would be long-winded and redundant, as every song on the album is a top notch winner, chock full of catchy riffs, and memorable licks abound at every corner. Though to simply say this album kicks major ass seems lazy and adolescent, yet that’s where I am at with Biological Enslavement. The plain and simple truth about Hemotoxin is this, whatever it is you like and/or crave about extreme metal can, and will, be satiated with Biological Enslavement.

Visceral, pounding, thrashy, melodic, progressive, warm, technical, pulsing, brilliant and full of life are all ways that I would describe Hemotoxin. Metal that gets the blood flowing and the neurons firing in the ‘ol grey matter. Maybe I’m a tad biased in my opinion, being that this type of metal (‘80’s thrash & ‘90’s death) is some of my favorite, but I wholeheartedly recommend Biological Enslavement, and can tell you I will be throwing out some cash for the album, my damn self, when it hits the streets.

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