I haven’t heard an album from this band for a while now as I was exploring other avenues but it’s nice to come across them again and see how much they had matured in their songwriting but never losing the brutality that characterised them from day one as it is something that makes a band unique when they bring their style into the metal world. Here they really show how far they have come, unrelenting attacks of riffs blend with some twisted solos and those vocals that send shivers down my spine.
The old school of death metal is ever present in some of the riffs, the sound is huge and you can totally feel that when those blastbeats are unleashed like a pack of wild dogs and the majority of the guitar riffs penetrates into your skin and lives there. Those snarling vocals totally spits venom and fire to obliterate the listener giving the album a more enjoyable experience, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for those twisted guitar solos to attack and leave me breathless. Songs like “Knights Of the Underworld” with those chanting passages are a delight to bang your head and destroy everything that’s in front of you, another song “Of God and Serpent, Of Spectre and Snake” is a beast of a song holding no prisoners and has only one mission – to bring up the decibel levels so high that you only want to get it out of your system by letting that tension out of your system and this album is good therapy in the nicest way possible.
The songs are not lengthy but enough to keep the adrenaline going and don’t expect epic or tempo changes all the time in a song, they have a formula that works. It keeps the flow going, the tension is high, there’s not a dull song here and is a very strong record in my opinion and like I said earlier, I was really surprised by how mature they sound and the sheer ferocity in every song complemented by melodic passages and those guitar solos are out of mind!! The drumming is top notch and never cease to slow down but on the other hand when the songs are of slow tempo, the drumming elevates the songs to greater proportions. The opener “Widowmaker” does what an opener is suppose to do, to get you out of your slumber and come and join the mosh, fast and brutal with those riffs going at 100km per hour, the fury of the songs dwells into the listener and is addictive.
Overall if you like your death metal fix with melodies thrown in between, guitar solos, double bass drum mayhem, venomous vocals, crunching bass lines and total obliteration, look no further. I think this band has cemented their place in the metal scene and this album will open up more doors for them. Now let yourself be submerged into this album, enjoy the ripping riffs and let brutality take over.
TRACKLIST
Widowmaker
Of God and Serpent, Of Spectre and Snake
Matriarch
Nightbringers
Jars
Kings of the Nightworld
Catacomb Hecatomb
As Good as Dead
The Lonely Deceased
Buy the album here – www.nervegas.com.au/tbdm
