Back in 2012, I reviewed The Abrogation from Alabama’s Chaos Invocation, a damn solid piece of ripping death metal. But then nothing for over 10 years. I was recently curious about the status of the band it turns out vocalist Chris White (also of Blood Stained Dusk) and guitarist/bassist Cam Pinkerton actually left the band and formed Black Hole Deity– then lo and behold the promo for their debut album shows up.

Rounding out this new project are drummer Mike Heller (Malignancy, Azure Emote, Cruelty Exalted) and guitarist Alec Codero (Cruelty Exalted). And the results are pretty damn good, and while certainly not a mere Chaos Inception clone, it’s still in the same sort of black/death ballpark.

Still sort of rooted in the Angelcorpse meets Nile style of furious death metal, Black Hole Deity also adds some sneaky, blistering melody to the fire and brimstone backbone, and even manages to add an atmospheric/instrumental string-laden interlude to break up the hell-storm with “Hydrazine Vapours (Interlude)”.

The razor-sharp melodies and leads are apparent in the first track, the aptly named “Blast Pit”, then other tracks like “Crucible Knight”, “Human Filet” and certainly the killer title track.

The concise 31 minutes is a vortex of shrill, shredding savagery that other than the interlude mentioned above (which is a great mid-album breather), does not waste a note or moment. It’s a pretty constant barrage of blistering riffs and blast beats (i.e. “Spell of Hecate”) but still has some memorability- which is a rare feat.

The back end of the album features a couple of longer tracks (by longer I mean 4 minutes plus), that show Black Hole Deity can be a bit more developed as “Swarm Attack”, angular “Cybernetic Inferno” (a whopping 5 and a half minutes) and Demons Beanath” show with some pacing mixed with the melodic leads.

Not surprisingly, a fine debut from these veterans, and it’s good to see Facebook pal, Chris White back doing music again.

[Visit the band's website]

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