Prime Evil, hailing from New York City, was more of a cult death/thrash band back in the 80’s/early 90’s.  They put out some demos and crap, but never breaking through to get a record deal.  Then they broke up and reformed 20 years later and in 2012 put out the devastating Evilution 3 song ep.  This was the branchild of original guitarist Mike Usifer and vocalist Andy Eichhorn.  Mike also played bass on the release and not having a drummer they programmed a drum machine.  The drum sound is natural, furious and one of the best programmed drum sounds ever.  The band also still retained their thrash roots, but were pushing the death metal brutality to the front.  I actually just got the ep, in conjunction with their first full length, Blood Curse Resurrection, released this summer.  They’ve added a drummer and bassist since the ep and what we have here is some pounding death metal with thrash influences.  I would compare their sound to early Dark Angel/Kreator/Possessed/Cannibal Corpse and Thanatos.

Prime Evil wastes little time with nifty intros and “Blood Curse” comes roaring through with an evil riff, before erupting into a brutal blast beat.  Andy’s vocals are throaty, understandable and powerful.  The 1.30 part slows things down a bit into a tight groove, killer drum patterns and the 1.50 part with Andy’s evil growl, spewing forth, has got to be a monstrous live highlight.  Then the pinch harmonics come in and blasting after that with a Slayer influenced guitar solo and I’m foaming at the mouth.  This song destroys from start to finish…but does it continue throughout the album?  Damn skippy, it does!  Holy craptacular, “Cannibal God”, at the 1.22 part is the Holy Shit part.  Evil riff before erupting into a monstrous groove with Andy bellowing about eating you, your kids, your steaks and your parents.

“In Defiance” has some sicko old school Malevolent Creation moments and outstanding vocals and a killer start/stop riff at the minute mark.  Terrific headbanging moments & blast beats as well.  On France’s Inferno Records, I am not sure if this album is going to get overlooked by people out there.  Label owner, Fabien, is cool as shit and I hope he has good distro.  This album should not be overlooked.  The production is not as clean and clear as the Evilution ep. Blood Curse Resurrection has some muddiness to the production; however it does not detract from the catchiness or to the point of it becoming a shit mess on the ears.

The digipak is well put together with a nice booklet and if you’re not singing the chorus to “Blacken The Sun”, when you get this monster of an album, then you have some major problems that need to be dealt with.  This is one of the strongest releases for 2015.  I hope Prime Evil, does not wait another 20 years to release their second album.  I’ll be in my 60’s then, and that will be bullshit.  Prime Evil should be proud of Blood Curse Resurrection.  It’s truly ferocious, brutal death/thrash that punishes in its 31 minutes.  Buy or Die!!

[Visit the band's website]

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