I’ve been a fan of this Australian band’s, ummm, depravity, since they released their full-length debut, Evil Upheaval back in 2018. They brought the brutality along with meaty riffs, pounding drums, and those deep death metal vocals. This style of brutal death metal doesn’t usually hit me, but when it does, it hits really hard.

So, anyway, they started blastin…’

They do so right out of the gates with the opener “Indulging Psychotic Thoughts.” Who hasn’t wanted to do so a time or two? It starts with those brutal death metal vocals and a galloping riff, which doesn’t last too long. They run through a finger-tapped brief riff, as well as an all too brief lead. They do employ multiple changes, including in the tempo for a pretty good opening salvo.

The next mention is track 4, “Cantankerous Butcher”, which is just a PSA letting you know that your local butcher is tired of your shit and he’s not afraid to show it. Give the dude some respect. He’s boring out pigs’ buttholes so you don’t have to. Anyway, the song is pretty solid. The guitar wizardry is on full display with a slightly longer solo than usual and multiple changes on display.

After that, the middle of the album includes two other great song titles, “Castrate the Perpetrators” and “The Coming of the Hammering” back-to-back. Castrated perpetrators probably aren’t doing a lot of “hammering…” Ifffffff… ya know what I mean (you do). The former includes a riff/vibe which comes into play a little bit later in the closing track, whereas “The Coming of the Hammering” is a little lengthy for a brutal death metal track, but still engaging, even if it doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table.

Closing out the proceedings is “Ghost in the Void,” which has a triumphant vibe to it. There’s a cool riff which sounds like maybe you just defeated that really difficult boss on a video game. It’s not a normal brutal death riff, but in case you were wondering to which sub-genre you were currently listening, the drums accompanying it should clear that right up. They go back to this riff right at the end, too, making for some excellent songwriting.

Is this as good as their previous? Nah, man, but I still dig it. After being blown away by their debut, this one doesn’t hit quite as hard, but it still hits in that “you know what you’re getting but loving every minute” sort of way. It’s another feather in the cap of the always reliable Transcending Obscurity Records. I feel like I review a new album from them quite regularly and am almost always impressed. As usual, the physical copies of this are sexy. Special edition vinyl? CD? Cassette? Hell yeah. I’m going in on that wooden coffin-shaped CD boxset. You shouldn’t though. It totally looks horrible and I’m not just saying that because I want all the copies myself.

[Visit the band's website]

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