War Metal masters ANTICHRIST SIEGE MACHINE return with their 3rd album of vitriolic hellfire. Out via Profound Lore Records on April 19th.
Bursting into life with a bestial vengeance, the raw savagery of the guitars and bludgeoning drums meet a thunderous roar of vocal malevolence. Grinding and grooving, the hostile soundscape will instantly either grip you, or scare you away. There is a truly tangible malice from the onset, which as a lover of their entire body of work is a most welcome return to form. Gut-wrenching hooks and a sense of dread creep into the record while momentum never dips, always taking a visceral hit to the jugular from their sonic scything. From those high tempo blistering moments to the stomping grooves that will pulverise your skull, everything about Antichrist Siege Machine’s violent assault is punishing and does not yield. As per usual, the snare sound cuts the chainsawing guitars beautifully, ensuring the noisy cymbals and lacerating vocals can be heard atop the cacophony of disquiet. It seems the relentless touring has refined the unit further as the organic and live feel to this record is exactly like that of their performance when I saw them. Intense, rabid, yet tight and precise.
Like a blasphemous death march of militant and unholy ferocity, Antichrist Siege Machine lead the charge with an endless supply of feisty and belligerent musicianship that always invokes this animalistic ferocity when you listen. The guttural production that bellows with grievous intentions and sadistic sounds perfectly conveys this mechanism of warfare. Their every ruthless track a display of the utmost inhospitable musical territories. Every second in these chaotic outbursts still feels carefully selected and purposeful, rather than a random assortment of hollow noises. While they forge forward at an alarming rate and play with the speed of a knife and force of a hammer, everything holds its ground gloriously. Listen to the single “Sisera”, for instance, and you will hear the epitome of aggression and malice that has shone through across the bands discography and is certainly impossible to extinguish at this point.
Until the last, ASM perform neanderthalic Extreme Metal with a sense of salivating slaughter that has been so consistent it is genuinely unnerving. Although their influences from the likes of Conqueror, Diocletian, Black Witchery and so forth is redundant to point out; there is a feeling of originality to this band and their devilish delivery that is rare. Alongside Black Curse, they feel just that bit more than simply War Metal worship. Plenty do a fantastic job slapping a red logo on some Chris Moyen art (a formula that has produced many of my favourite albums of all time, I might add), but ASM walk their own path which is equally valid. The snappy and cut-throat percussive punishment is definitely a huge part of it for me, but let us not overlooked the maddened guitar riffs which often feel frenzied and yet fall perfectly in line with the military precision of the album. Of course the vocal delivery is as unwelcoming as ever, tying the instruments together with no corners cut. I find “Vengeance Of Eternal Fire” to be a superb new addition to a discography that, thus far, has never faltered for a moment.
An unwieldy opus of bestial Blackened Death Metal might that ranges from convulsive thrashing vitriol to ominously oppresive doom. Featuring one of the most intense drum performances and equally unwelcoming guitars and vocals, the duo prove that their vengeful violence is unstoppable. This is a short record, but don’t be undersold. This is to spare you some life force to return and spin it again, because the entire running time is unforgiving and menacing with aggression at a constant ten. Purge any plaguing holiness from yourself with this insanity made sound, the duo create the perfect soundtrack to possession with their rabid warfare that is evidently unstoppable.
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