I’m not super familiar with the UK crust/D beat scene or this Durham based act who have been around since since 2006 with a number of splits and EPs under their bullet belt. But if debut full length Usurping the Throne of Disease is any indication I need to rectify both issues right away.

Coming across like a more nasty, blackened, furious version Tragedy or Wolfbrigade, Usurping the Throne of Disease is a 32 minute, 9 song tornado of rocks and glass shredding, tearing and ripping its way through your soft flesh. There’s some inherent d-beat melody that drives the assault, but’s its a  power chord driven sense of sneering, punky melody that’s as infectious as it is furious.  Just listen to opener “The Howling Wolves of Armageddon” or “Millions Lie Slaughtered”.

To be honest, I have not heard anything this unrelenting and volatile in a while. The guitar tone has a slight mid range buzz as expected giving the  Darkthrone influence some heft while the vocals of the controversial transsexual front woman Kat Shevil are a mix of gruff gravelly shouts and some blackened rasps and the overall hue has a distinct blackened/death/thrash undertone feel (maybe due to members serving in death metal acts Horrifed and Uncoffined), despite the d-beat structures.

Songs like “Mass Graves of the Innocent” or ‘Till Graven” reign things in bit to more traditional d-beat canter, but there is still an air of filthy, ashen vitriol dripping from every note and howl on tracks like “Deathstrike of the Scythe”,”Venomous Warfare” or closer “Swathed by the Black Wings of Death” which ends the simple, effective salvo of an album with a searing exclamation point. Don’t be surprised if this sneaks onto my year end list somehow, and I just hope  this project remains active and continues to rise through the UK’s extreme metal ranks and deliver more killer albums in the future.

[Visit the band's website]

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