LIVE REVIEW: Bullet For My Valentine & Trivium @ The OVO Hydro, Glasgow

Make no mistake: The Poisoned Ascendancy tour, on which BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and TRIVIUM are celebrating their seminal records’ 20th anniversaries by playing them in full, says more about the metal scene in 2005 than 2025. Both The Poison and Ascendancy are major stops along the way in the story of 21st century metal and both attracted different audiences at the time. But, 20 years later, all tribalism has been put to the side, trumped by nostalgia for another era.

Bullet For My Valentine live @ The OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Alan Swan Photography

Both bands are taking it in turns to close out the night across the tour. In Glasgow, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE are up first, but not before a grainy montage of interviews, gigs, and magazine covers from around The Poison’s release. It’s a reminder of how quickly BULLET’s stock rose in a short time, achieved by having a toe in the burgeoning metalcore scene and another in the aesthetics of the dominant emo movement. If genre purists could look past how primed for MSN Messenger BULLET’s lyric were, there were plenty of riffs and harmonies to sink their teeth into.

BULLET celebrated The Poison for its 10th anniversary too, but never on this scale. This time round, they’re taking in the country’s biggest rooms and they’re bringing screens, lasers, and a METALLICA-like ‘hell hole’ at the front, in which fans have paid a pretty penny to be surrounded by rockstar walkways.

The album’s front-half is greeted with elation; the explosive power chords of 4 Words (To Choke Upon) and Tears Don’t Fall’s intro – the biggest crossover banger from both sets – bring the biggest cheers of the night. The real treat in full-album sets are the deep cuts, with Hit The Floor, Room 409, 10 Years Today, Cries In Vain, and The End absent from BULLET shows since the record’s last anniversary. The five-star b-sides represent what was a fertile period for the band, who have struggled critically to reach the acclaim of this early era (although undoubtedly still out-draw TRIVIUM worldwide).Bullet For My Valentine live @ The OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Alan Swan Photography

As far as nostalgia shows go, this one is a reminder of how essential BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE were when they came out of the gates with something to prove. They looked good on posters, knew how to structure a song, and made heavy music that didn’t feel like a boys’ club. It is when they kick off their encore with Knives, from 2021’s self-titled album, that the feeling the band’s best days are long behind them is hard to shake. BULLET came on the scene with a voice and something to say with it, but by comparison, Knives is formulaic and lacks identity among modern metal playlists.

But tonight is about The Poison and the thousands of people who’ve had all these choruses committed to memory for two decades. When it comes to records that paid homage to metal with its circle-pit mosh calls while gunning for the big leagues with radio-ready hooks, it is almost unrivalled since the turn of the millennium. A chance to hear it in full (sans Spit You Out, which is replaced by Hand Of Blood as on the anniversary edition of the album) is savoured and celebrated. For one night, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE sound ready to take over the world again.

Rating: 8/10Trivium live @ The OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Alan Swan Photography

If BULLET brought the melodrama in 2005, TRIVIUM brought something more faithful. Frontman Matt Heafy spoke at the time of his love of METALLICA, and on this night, bassist Paolo Gregoletto is sporting one of their tees. Like Master Of Puppets before it, Ascendancy inspired a generation of metalheads to pick up a guitar and shout along to Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr in their bedroom.

For those who’ve followed Heafy’s vocal ups and downs over the years, this tour has an added note of anticipation. After years of training, metal’s foremost disciplinarian has managed to recreate his raw vocals from the Ascendancy era. On social media, he’s hyped just how much this will bring to TRIVIUM shows going forward. The verdict? He’s never sounded better. As soon as he opens his mouth, it’s clear he’s levelled up and gone full beast mode. It’s utterly monstrous.

The Ascendancy half of the show is therefore less nostalgic; this is a victory lap, a pitstop along the way to a future still full of potential and artistic development. TRIVIUM’s recent run of records, from The Sin And The Sentence through to In The Court Of The Dragon, are all fine-tuned pieces of heavy metal. With Heafy on the form of his life and the band coming off of a creative purple patch, nothing is stopping them reaching for the lofty heights of Ascendancy and Shogun for years to come.Trivium live @ The OVO Hydro, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Alan Swan Photography

The division between both bands in 2005 is noticeable still: BULLET’s set is an ode to emotional adolescence, while TRIVIUM’s worships the canon of thrash and Swedish melodic death metal. TRIVIUM don’t have a Tears Don’t Fall, despite the respite of Dying In Your Arms, so it’s the chaos of late-record songs like The Deceived that elevate their set. In Scotland’s biggest arena, it sets multiple circle pits in motion and gets crowd surfers over the barrier again and again, while Heafy stands like a tattooed Spartan encouraging the melee.

An encore of In Waves is a safe option after a night of deep cuts for devoted fans, but TRIVIUM bow out with their flame as ferocious as ever. Heafy is noted for his perfectionism and has spoken about the band rehearsing for this tour since early 2024. It shows: the set is an effortless and straight-forward clinic in which 20-year-old songs sound as vital as ever. If there’s any element of competition between the co-headliners – who could headline Glasgow’s Hydro on their own, for example – TRIVIUM are the ones who still feel truly ascendant.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Alan Swan Photography here:













































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INTRODUCING: Obeyer

If we were to be overly pedantic, OBEYER shouldn’t really be considered a ‘new band’. The Northampton-based quartet are veterans of the UK circuit and originally got together in 2010, so have already enjoyed a career longer than most bands could dream of. They’ve got some serious underground pedigree and even wound up in The Guardian once, so by most metrics would be considered an established act.



However, OBEYER are not the band they once were. Previously known as LAY SIEGE, they have experienced a dramatic change in sound and attitude, and it’s revitalised them. LAY SIEGE were a decent but predictable metalcore band, but OBEYER are a far more nuanced and progressive-minded act. They’ve added ethereal soundscapes and off-kilter songwriting, and the result is one of the most exciting metalcore debuts of 2024.

“We went into this this album as more of a vanity project, I guess, wanting to prove to ourselves that we could write these songs, and that we could step up,” explains vocalist Carl Brown. “You know we had no vision of being in this situation that we’re in now. We had no expectation that it was going to happen until the masters came back, and we were all sitting there listening to it and thought, ‘you know what? It is essentially a new band, a new sound.’”

He’s talking about Chemical Well, their recently released full-length. Across ten tracks and forty-two minutes of runtime, OBEYER showcase a forward-thinking style of metalcore that is bound to raise eyebrows. Where a lot of their peers are have turned towards nu-metal or electronica for influences, OBEYER are more interested in post-metal and sludge. This gives Chemical Well a distinct vibe, akin to GOD FORBID covering CULT OF LUNA, and they’re heavier and nastier than before.

A big reason for this is that OBEYER are very much a group project, with all four members taking part in the writing process. “We write old school,” explains drummer Lewis Niven, “We all sit in a room, and Jamie [Steadman, guitars] will play a riff or something, and then we’ll put some drums to it and start to structure a song like that. I know a lot of bands have one guy that writes everything on a computer and just sends it out and everyone learns it. We’ve never been like that. It has its pros and its cons. It means writing can take a while. It can be quite a back-and-forth process, but the songs build in a more natural fashion.”

As a result, Chemical Well is a very “organic” sounding record. The likes of A Momentary Death, Second Sun and the immense opener Witness are all chaotic pit-igniters with a hefty amount of chug, possessed with all the fury of a man who just bit into a KitKat with no wafers in it. But they also feel like they’ve developed over time, rather than being bolted together in a metalcore factory.


That being said, Chemical Well is accessible enough that OBEYER could tour with BURY TOMORROW and not feel out of place. It’s an aggressive and occasionally very dark record, but the thunderous riffs and earth-shaking breakdowns will appeal to any professional fist-swingers out there. And yes, they’re not averse to sneaking the odd clean vocal line in either, even if it was never their original intention. The more melodic parts are all thanks to a happy accident.

“Seven or eight years ago, we were on tour and the mic dropped from the stand on one of the shows. Jamie, instinctively picked it up and just started singing. Our jaws all dropped and we just thought, ‘what the fuck was that? Where did that come from?’” Carl laughs. “It’s taken seven years of bullying, and we’ve finally got him to contribute some vocals.”

You’ll spot a few genre cliches in there, but for the most part, OBEYER’s debut album is perfect for anyone that wants their ‘core to push boundaries. They’ve already attracted the attention of PERIPHERY‘s Misha Mansoor and signed to his 3DOT Recordings label, and with the hype machine behind them, the future seems bright for OBEYER.

But as violent, abrasive and uncompromising as Chemical Well gets, there’s a wholesome side to OBEYER as well. They’ve known one another for years now, and despite spending a hefty chunk of their adult lives rehearsing, gigging and stuck in vans together, they’re still mates. The line-up is largely unchanged from the LAY SIEGE days, and having responsibilities like full-time jobs and families hasn’t diminished their enthusiasm. If anything, the band is a way to keep their friendship intact. As Carl says; “we’re all dads. We’ve all got jobs. Being able to meet up on a regular basis and scream my head off is a good excuse to see my mates.”

Chemical Well is out now via 3DOT Recordings.

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SEPULTURA: “O FÃ QUE SE FOD@! COMO VOCÊ VAI FAZER ARTE E MÚSICA PENSANDO NO FÃ?”, DIZ ANDREAS KISSER

Foto: Florian Stangl. All rights reserved.




Durante um novo episódio do programa “Papo com Clê”, do canal Corredor 5, o guitarrista do Sepultura, Andreas Kisser, resolveu dizer o que pensa sobre os fãs do Sepultura e de Heavy Metal em geral. Ele deu a seguinte declaração (com transcrição do Mundo Metal):



“O fã, você fala do fã… Cara, com todo o respeito, o fã que se foda, mano! Por que cara, qual é o fã do Sepultura?

Tem a tia que acompanha há quarenta anos, tem gente que começou a ouvir ontem, tem cara que curte reggae, tem surfista, tem ator de TV, não tem um estereótipo tipo “fã do Sepultura”.

Como você vai fazer arte e música pensando no fã? Isso não é arte, isso é uma outra forma de escravidão. ‘Ah não, eu preciso fazer o som que o cara lá vai gostar.’ O fã de Heavy Metal é muito chato, cara! São os caras mais chatos que tem, porque estão sempre comparando, é sempre, ‘Ah, o cara não fez aquela nota ao vivo’ e não sei o que… O fã do Sepultura nem tanto, mas o fã de Metal, técnico, não sei o que, está sempre preocupado se vai tocar não sei o que e esquece de curtir o momento, o show.
Melhores ofertas em auscultadores



Está sempre preso ali no que foi o passado, no disco… O disco é só um registro de um momento, ele não é a verdade definitiva. Ele é um registro de um momento, daquele presente, né? E porra, as músicas evoluem, vê o Bob Dylan fazendo um show, por exemplo. O cara toca o que ele quiser, do arranjo que ele quiser. Não é porque foi gravado em 1968 que ele vai fazer igual. É o presente, é respeitar o presente. Muito fã sai com o nariz torto porque ele está esperando aquilo que ele criou do passado dele, ‘Eu quero ouvir aquilo.’ Você não quer nada, cara!


Melhores ofertas em auscultadores

O Bob Dylan, quando você ouviu pela primeira vez, você nem sabia que ele existia e isso mudou sua vida. Hoje você está no show porque aquilo mudou a sua vida. Então deixa o Bob Dylan mudar a sua vida de novo hoje. Não crie expectativa! Viva o momento. Se você não gostar é outra coisa, mas enfim…”

CLÁSSICOS: SLAYER – “LIVE UNDEAD” (1984)

CLÁSSICOS: SLAYER – “LIVE UNDEAD” (1984)












“Live Undead” é o primeiro live album da banda americana de Thrash Metal, Slayer.



Falar de Thrash Metal e não mencionar o quarteto americano SLAYER, é no mínimo um dos piores pecados que alguém pode cometer.

Ok! Você pode até não curtir a banda ou alguns de seus discos lançados no final dos anos 90 ou mesmo alguns do início dos anos 2000, porém, é preciso reconhecer que o quarteto foi o grande criador de cinco grandes obras primas da música pesada, indispensáveis na coleção de qualquer amante do verdadeiro Thrash Metal.

Poucas bandas conseguiram lançar uma pentalogia de respeito e principalmente de qualidade quanto estes caras.
HISTÓRICO

O início com Show No Mercy (1983), seguido de Hell Awaits (1985), Reign In Blood (1986), South Of Heaven (1988), assim como Season In The Abyss (1990), mostra que o Slayer trouxe consigo a fórmula perfeita do peso e da agressividade.



Não por acaso, são considerados os mestres do estilo e com o passar dos anos, pois adquiriram o respeito de bandas e personalidades na música pesada mundial, numa espécie de reverência e admiração. Sejamos sinceros? Eles merecem.


O ano era 1984, a banda colhia os frutos de seu álbum de estréia, o excepcional “Show No Mercy”, disco que causou burburinho na cena da música pesada e arrancou elogios de fãs, críticos, músicos de outras bandas e claro, vendeu muito bem (pra época).

Com todo esse prestígio acerca dos quatros rapazes e com o vento soprando a favor, era hora de mostrar o poder de destruição também fora do estúdio. Afinal de contas, como diria um certo apresentador pé no saco, “Quem Sabe, Faz ao Vivo!”
“LIVE UNDEAD”

Lançado oficialmente em março de 1984, “Live Undead” é o primeiro registro ao vivo da banda e traz sete faixas gravadas em Nova York, distribuídas em apenas vinte e três minutos de duração.

O disco abre com uma introdução monstruosa de “Black Magic”, faixa que entra com os dois pés na porta e de cara notamos a insanidade tomando conta dos “sortudos” que puderam presenciar esta destruição.



No entanto, numa aula de riffs, peso e agressividade, podemos dizer que o disco abre com uma cacetada na cabeça no estilo Negan & Lucille (The Walking Dead).

E já que falei de cacetada na cabeça, “Die By The Sword” é a próxima destruição sonora. Com seus solos geniais, riffs cortantes feito lâmina na carne e sua pegada voltada ao Heavy Metal propriamente dito, somos conduzidos pelos vocais matadores de Mr Tom Araya em mais uma faixa animal e “sombria” em algumas passagens. Destaque para a bateria destruidora e precisa de Dave Lombardo.
“CAPTOR OF SIN”

“Captor Of Sin”, faixa extraída do EP “Haunting The Chapel”, chega chutando tudo com seus riffs violentos e uma bateria tal qual uma metralhadora (que pegada infernal de Lombardo) em mais um momento grandioso onde a banda chuta traseiros.

Falamos da bateria de Dave Lombardo, metralhando tudo à sua frente. Certo? Então se prepara pois “The Antichrist” é aquela música que chega igual furacão, destruindo tudo que estiver a frente e se alguém precisa levar a culpa por isso, esse alguém é sem sombra de dúvidas o Sr. Lombardo.

Em uma das faixas mais agressivas e mais rápidas dos discos, nos deparamos com os vocais animais de Tom Araya, chutando tímpanos e destruindo crânios. Que música meus amigos.



Hora de estufar os pulmões e gritar bem alto “EVIL”. Sim! A próxima trilha para a destruição é “Evil Has No Boundaries” e seu grito insano ao início se confunde com as guitarras da dupla Jeff Hanneman e Kerry King. Sem piedade e sem se importar se ainda há fôlego nos pulmões do público presente, executam esta que é uma das músicas mais F**** da banda. Sabe-se lá como, mas ainda há forças para os presentes gritarem o refrão: “Evil, My words defy, Evil, Has no disguise, Evil, Will take your soul, Evil…My wrath unfolds”, em um dos momentos mais insanos do disco, numa música que traz o híbrido perfeito entre o Thrash e o Speed Metal.
“EVIL HAS NO BOUNDARIES”

Opinião pessoal: A grandiosidade de “Evil Has No Boundaries” dispensa comentários e não por acaso, é a música de abertura do todo poderoso “Show No Mercy” . Traduzindo: Caso seu primeiro contato com a banda tenha sido através desta maravilha (meu caso), então esta será literalmente a primeira música do Slayer que você ouviu na sua vida. Parabéns!
“SHOW NO MERCY”

Hora do mosh pit com “Show No Mercy”, uma das músicas mais vorazes do Slayer. Numa avalanche de riffs, peso, agressividade e mais uma vez Dave Lombardo destruindo tudo à sua frente. Não resta dúvidas de que nesse momento, uma roda de poga tenha se formado frente ao palco e logo após algumas “colisões”, é certo que alguns fãs tenha voltado pra casa com algumas costelas fraturadas (tá valendo).
“AGGRESSIVE PERFECTOR”

E já que falamos em fraturas, “Aggressive Perfector” é a faixa que encerra o disco de forma devastadora. Extraída do EP “Haunting The Chapel”, temos aqui a trilha sonora perfeita para o apocalipse (fato), onde as guitarras cospem riffs, acompanhadas de uma cozinha matadora composta por baixo e bateria, conduzidos pelos vocais insanos e agressivos de Tom Araya, em uma performance magistral. Numa palavra: Insano.
GRAVAÇÃO POLÊMICA

Algumas dúvidas pairam sobre as gravações de “Live Undead”. O disco que foi gravado diante um público em um pequeno espaço, no entanto, levantou suspeitas sobre a veracidade da plateia presente. Rumores deram conta de que algo deu errado no dia das gravações e que todo o barulho e aquela atmosfera do público presente, é falsa.


BILL METOYER

Diante dos fortes rumores e indagado sobre a real presença do público, o produtor Bill Metoyer respondeu: Não sei se devo lhe dizer! Digamos apenas que quando você está fazendo um disco ao vivo, você quer som ao vivo, mesmo que talvez os microfones não captem o público adequadamente.

Não sabemos se a banda tocou para uma plateia de fato. Se não o fez, isso definitivamente não tira o brilho de “Live Undead”, que é um trabalho espetacular, insano e muito bem executado.

Porém, se o barulho que aparece no disco for de fato dos fãs presentes, então tenhamos a certeza de que ali estavam um bando de alucinados, gritando, berrando e certamente entrando em colisão corporal em cada um das sete faixas executadas.
BLACK MAGIC

No final de “Black Magic”, Tom Araya profere as seguintes palavras:


“ELES DIZEM QUE A CANETA É MAIS PODEROSA DO QUE A ESPADA. BEM, EU DIGO FODA-SE A CANETA!”.
“DIE BY THE SWORD”

Em seguida a banda executa a faixa “Die By The Sword”. A versão ao vivo de “Black Magic” em Live Undead, estabeleceu uma tendência ao longo da carreira do Slayer. A banda decidiu que em seus shows, passariam a soar mais pesados e suas músicas seriam mais “poderosas” que as versões gravada em estúdio.

INTRODUCING: Lowen

As we approach the denouement of 2024, when music critics are frantically working on their Album Of The Year lists, one thing is for certain: You’re bound to see Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran, the new offering from LOWEN, make an appearance on more than a few metal journo’s lists. An incredible piece of work that combines BOLT THROWER style riffs with Middle Eastern folklore, political rage, and the jaw dropping powerful pipes of vocalist Nina Saeidi, it has turned more than a few heads since its release in October.



One of the most remarkable things about Demons… is just how much of a step up it is from their 2018 debut, A Crypt In The Stars. While there were glimpses of the band’s vision and talent on that record, the leaps forward they’ve made in their songwriting, performance and production are nothing short of remarkable. Nina and her co-writer Shem Lucas have clearly been hard at work in the intervening years. Recruiting a new drummer, Cal Constantine to bring a thunderous backbeat to the band was just the start of it.

“A lot of stuff happened,” Nina confirms. “When me and Shem started the band I wanted to be distinctly Middle Eastern but taking those ideas and expressing them in a way you hear them in your head is not an easy thing to do when you’re just starting out and finding your feet as a musician. It took us years of study. We worked with ethnomusical archaeologists and I did courses in microtonal singing. It’s a constant work in progress and we’re still studying and improving.”

While their debut was very much in the slow and brooding doom metal oeuvre, the way LOWEN have introduced death metal elements in Shem’s intricate riffing and Cal’s frantic drumming have injected an irresistible vitality to LOWEN’s sound. It’s something that Nina was keen on. “I think death metal is one of those genres where when you mix it with another genre of music it really works. A lot of death metal bands already have a middle eastern influence and I really wanted to highlight that by having an authentic Middle Eastern voice in there.”

And authentic it is. Nina is of Iranian heritage, having been born in exile after her parents fled the 1979 revolution that led to an oppressive religious regime taking power. She finds herself a complex dichotomy of having a deep and personal connection to a place she may never get to visit.


“It’s heartbreaking, honestly. During the writing of the album, my grandmother was at the end of her life, and I had a lot of conversations with her while she was literally on her deathbed, and she was like, ‘when are you going to come and see me?’ It’s such a difficult thing to experience. I could get on a plane and just go and see her, but I would be arrested at the airport. I’d get executed. And I remember growing up like I’d be talking to my grandparents and aunts and uncles, and you’d literally hear the phone tapping as your your conversations are being listened to. So yeah it’s a huge part of my identity that I’ve never been able to fully connect with.”

Unable to visit her homeland, instead she found connection through the country’s rich cultural and literary heritage, most notably the epic poem Shahnameh, or, The Book of Kings, a section of which became the title of the new LOWEN album.

Nina laughs at the suggestion that writing the album must have been like studying for a PhD. “It’s funny you should say that as I’m a PhD drop out. Maybe this album is my thesis! But yeah I was searching for a point to start writing and exploring from and I was reading the Shahnameh because it has so much mythology and the foundational myths of Iran in it. I wasn’t even halfway through and I found the chapter Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran. And I was like, ‘this is amazing’. I told the story to Shem, and he was like, ‘that’s going to be the album title!’ It was the perfect springboard for exploring the rest of the album’s themes.”

Those themes are as heavy as the music through which it is expressed. Through the poetry and mythology, Nina explores weighty topics such as oppression, especially of women, with all her rage expressed through a powerful vocal performance that uses the heart wrenchingly expressive singing style Tahir, rather than the death growls one would usually associate with the style of music from LOWEN. “I think sometimes it’s a lot scarier when you hear anger that’s not expressed as a shout or a word or like a screen, I think you know, like when you get in trouble at school, and like the teacher, instead of shouting at you, talks really quietly.”

To be able to express herself in such an articulate and powerful way took a lot of work. When starting LOWEN, she didn’t even see herself as a singer. “I’ve worked with quite a range of vocal teachers. I worked a lot with someone called Lila de Souza in Hertfordshire. I did some vocal training with a woman that does a lot of people in the West End. She was really Christian though and when she realised what the lyrics were about, she dropped me. We also worked with this amazing musician called Saeid Kordmafi, who collects old folk music from specific towns in Iran and is pitch perfect on a microtonal level.”

If studying epic poems and learning microtonal singing wasn’t enough, Nina also taught herself to play exotic instruments such as the Santur, or hammered dulcimer, a 56 stringed cousin of the guitar, which she used to add further depth to the rich sonic tapestry on Demons… “I had that hand made for me in Iran and it was smuggled across international borders. Not in a super illegal way but you can’t just buy them in the UK at that quality anyway.”

With this level of dedication, passion, and sheer devotion on an artistic and human level it’s no surprise that LOWEN are making such waves across the UK underground metal scene at the moment, and will surely continue to do so for years to come.

Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran is out now via Church Road Records.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Infectious Vermin – Rats Of Gomorrah

RATS OF GOMORRAH formed back in 2023, but their founders date further back into the death metal underground. Guitarist/vocalist Daniel Stelling alongside drummer Moritz Paulsen have been active since 2009 but playing as a duo from 2016 onward. Enter RATS OF GOMORRAH. Tired of all the average cliches of death metal bands, RATS OF GOMORRAH wanted to put their own spin on death metal while not completely abandoning the genre that gave birth to the crushing duo.



Lyrically the album takes from many inspirations in the current climate of the world, but mainly revolves around environmental and social issues that weaves into Lovecraftian horror themes to make it more infectious and darker, while retaining the death metal edge for violence that makes the cobwebs of the PMRC (Parents Music Recource Center) quake in fear. While opener Swarming Death may trick you into thinking it’s a thrash song with the buzzing guitar riff, but the rumbling vocals of Stelling lay that thought to rest and send your neck to the hospital.


Tails Unknown also lulls you into a false sense of security as Stelling’s guitar and vocals both rip and tear a black metal-esque sound, his ring wraith-like vocals cut through the guitar and drums like icicles through sheet metal. The production sound is full and vibrant as Stelling’s guitar work, while thin sounding, adds to the feel of the album to make some layers explode with flavour which Stelling does make up for in sheer ferocity in his riffs that flood the album from start to finish.

From here on out though, the album does start to dip somewhat. Not instrumentally as the guitar work is impeccable on songs like Rise From The Abyss and Towers Ropes And Knives and Paulsen’s drumming is furious and precise on tracks like Night Orbit and Vat Of Acid. The only dip in quality are the vocals. While Stelling does switch from his growls to his higher shrieks across the album, there’s almost no texture to his gutturals causing the album as a whole to take a hit to stand out from their peers.

Which is a huge shame because he has the means to fill his voice out but it lacks for the majority of the album and acts as a stone wall putting a halt to most of the momentum captured on the stand out track Vat Of Acid, a tour de force showcasing the complexity of both Stelling and Paulsen as a songwriting duo. Stelling’s shrieks are as prominent on this track, but when his growls hit, it takes a detour into bland territory.

Still, Infectious Vermin is a technically inspired slab of death metal fun. And clocking in at just over 45 minutes it does seem to drag in places that feel uninspired, but it’s hard to argue that the album is filled with a few catchy choruses, crust laden riffs and beautifully disfigured drum work. It just needs more inspired vocals to make the rest of the album sturdy to stand against the weight of the death metal scene.

Rating: 6/10



Infectious Vermin is available now via Testimony Records

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