Unspeakable Axe

Critical Defiance

The Search Won't Fall...

Unspeakable Axe

The Chilean metal force known as Critical Defiance has something for every thrash fan out there. Not in the sense of being homogenized and generic, but in their alchemical and nearly magical melding of blitzkrieg tempos, dizzying technicality, aggressive shouts and gang vocals, and—rarest of all for a post-1990 thrash act—a healthy dose of actual, memorable melody. Now about to drop their third full-length The Search Won’t Fall... like a bomb from a warplane, they have added a new element to the mix: just a taste of the eerie melancholy and harsh melodrama of black metal. Their release schedule has been nearly as fast as their music, with the debut (Misconception) coming in 2019, and its follow-up (No Life Forms) in 2022. They have let even less time elapse from then until this new platter’s arrival, taking line-up changes in stride and pushing forward relentlessly regardless. The addition of Mauricio Toledo on guitar (just prior to their previous album) has pushed their music in new directions. That black metal aspect—some tremelo riffing, some blastbeats, bits of a distinctly new melodic sensibility—lends the album an updated feeling that sets it apart from its predecessors, while by no means abandoning the thrash foundation that has served them so well. All of this ambition is well-served by a terrific production job that balances just the right amount of rawness and polish. Three albums in, Critical Defiance are poised to deliver their most ferocious work yet. Angry yet uplifting, full of the spirit of...

Hellish

The Dance Of The Four Elemental Serpents

Unspeakable Axe

Since their formation in 2010, Hellish have become a prolific force on the blackened thrash scene. With a discography to date totaling two albums, three EPs, four demos, a couple compilations, a split, and a single, this Chilean quartet have been nothing but dedicated to their evil cause over the past decade-plus. During that cursed year of 2020, longtime vocalist /bassist Necromancer departed the band, but in came Christopher Aravena as his replacement, and Hellish sounded more invigorated than ever on last year’s The Vermis Mysteriis EP. With that bolstered lineup in place, Hellish return to the full-length front with The Dance Of The Four Elemental Serpents. The title alone should speak toward the band’s elevation above the cliché aspects of idiomatic blackthrash; while their grounding in the Teutonic “Big Four” of Sodom, Kreator, and Destruction has never been in question, Hellish have always made subtle-yet-concerted strides to separate themselves from mere worship, and The Dance Of The Four Elemental Serpents proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt. For one, the guitars of Francisco Sanhueza and Javier Salgado wind and wend with wild abandon, keeping the riff trajectory aggressive yet creative, twisting and turning with a diabolism that reaches a fever pitch with well-timed (and quite literally explosive) solos. For another, Aravena’s bass goes in busier directions than just following the guitarists’ riffing; hulking and upfront, his chops match those of the six-stringers, and guitarist-turned-drummer Christian León’s tasteful touches on the kit flesh out that momentum with fury and...

Miscreance

Convergence

Unspeakable Axe

One of the few relatively unmined veins of extreme metal, technical death / thrash—the style pioneered by the likes of Atheist and Sadus—is a demanding art, for both the band and the listener. Fortunately for both, Italian death thrashers Miscreance have very sure hands. On their debut full-length, Convergence, a dizzying array of influences and ideas come together to make a feast for fans of the genre. Riffs twist and contort, lead parts spiral off like celestial bodies in orbit, and even the overall song structures are intricate beasts. Everything Miscreance touches is a twist or three off from the predictable and repetitive approach of much latter-day thrash and death. Convergence, in short, is the kind of album that purists will salivate over: in love with and mindful of the halcyon days of the genre, but insistent on surprising the listener rather than just delivering the basics again. Unspeakable Axe Records is very pleased to conspire to bring out this release, in advance of a European tour in 2023 with like-minded labelmates Ripper (Chile).

Algebra

Chiroptera

Unspeakable Axe

Swiss thrashers Algebra have become one of the most reliable machines in metaldom over the course of their fourteen years of existence. Like the famous Swiss watches, their music is clockwork-precise. Several overlapping schools of classic thrash coexist in their songs, with the heaviness and directness of the classic Bay Area bands somehow not crowding out the weirder, progressive flourishes of countrymates Coroner or even modern, post-1992 extreme metal influences, à la latter-day Megadeth, perhaps. It all comes together into a pummelling, yet controlled, behemoth of a band without visible seams on its stainless steel outer shell. Their release schedule has been almost as reliable as their riffwork, with prior full-length albums Polymorph in 2012, Feed The Ego in 2014, and Pulse? in 2019. The latter two were their first outings for Unspeakable Axe Records, who is now proud to unleash their fourth album. Titled Chiroptera—with a suitably spooky bat painted on its cover, courtesy of the talented Adam Burke—this may be Algebra’s most advanced offering yet, without departing too greatly from the style they have been refining up ’til now.

Critical Defiance

No Life Forms

Unspeakable Axe

Chile over the past decade has been one of the hotbeds for extreme metal, particularly for bands that pay homage to, and expand upon, the pioneering work done in the genre in the 1980s and ’90s. Of particular note is Chilean thrash metal, a scene bursting with bands who take familiar styles and just do them better, faster, and more authentically than almost anyone. Critical Defiance were one of the more pulverizing acts in thrash in 2019, with their debut album (Misconception) marrying high-speed riffing to Bay Area-worthy melodies. Now their follow-up, No Life Forms, has arrived, and the band shows no signs of slowing down. It’s clear from the opening notes that the three-year layoff was well-used, both to refine their compositions and to gather the massive amount of energy necessary for another full-on assault. The album is a whirling tornado of how-did-he-play-that guitar riffs, barked Tom Araya-esque vocals, and an indefatigable rhythm section that never misses a beat or slows the pace for a second. Surprisingly pretty lead parts and memorable choruses will keep one on the hook and break up the brutality just enough, like the squirts of cool water given to bloodied boxers between rounds. With No Life Forms, Critical Defiance have exceeded themselves and made what is sure to be one of the best thrash albums of 2022.

Besieged

Violence Beyond All Reason

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Besieged might be the most perfectly named band in metal, except for the slight implication that the band themselves are the ones being besieged. Anyone who has listened to their long-ago debut album, Victims Beyond All Help, knows that is very much not the case. This is music that does not take breaths, does not stop for rest, does not slow down, and shows no mercy. Coming out of wintry Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, Besieged has always sounded a little more South American, a little more European, and occasionally a little more Bay Area than their geography might imply. From any random song one can tell that the brothers who make up the band have listened to plenty of Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains, given the raw vocals and brisk thrash tempos on display. But there is a jagged anarchy to their riff construction and frequent tempo changes that suggests they have absorbed plenty from European-style death metal as well. And the occasional shout-along chorus is straight out of the Bay’s thrash playbook. Twelve years have elapsed between their debut and this new album. But it takes only a few seconds of the very first track to disabuse anyone of the notion that the passage of time has slowed down the band any, or dulled their attack in the slightest. Violence Beyond All Reason is as perfectly named as the band themselves, in the end: this is pure audio violence, and does the thrash genre proud.

Suppression

The Sorrow Of Soul Through Flesh

Unspeakable Axe

Death and thrash metal has had no shortage of sincere revivalists with good taste and good intentions over the past two decades. Only a smaller handful of them have had the passion, the raw edge, and the sense of unguarded discovery as the original innovators of these genres, however. And a disproportionate number of them seem to come from Chile. With two ex-members of lauded Chilean thrash band Ripper, Suppression would seem to be positioned to do for technical death metal what Ripper did for technical thrash, and that is exactly what they accomplish on their debut album, The Sorrow Of Soul Through Flesh. Not a revival in the sense of a dusty museum piece, this is more of a full-on assault that would do proud the likes of Luc Lemay or any of the various bands Steve DiGeorgio played bass for in the nineties. Suppression here presents a bloody feast of intricate riffs, jaw-dropping fretless bass, head-snapping drum rhythms, and disgusting vocals to rival Cryptopsy or Cannibal Corpse. No mere intellectual exercise, however, as the band do not stretch their songs out to progressive suite length or get indulgently experimental. This is music that is hand-crafted to satisfy both trained musicians and headbangers.  Ten tracks deep and graced with typically gut-twisting art by Paolo Girardi, The Sorrow Of Soul Through Flesh is sure to be one of the most impactful death metal releases of the year.

Obsolete

Animate // Isolate

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For a certain type of metal purist, extremity is defined not by blast beats and bowel-bothering growls, but by how fast a band can sand one’s face off with a riff that is both instantly memorable, and so intricate and alien that one can’t begin to understand how to play it on a lowly human guitar. By that metric, Obsolete may be that certain purist’s favorite band.  Every riff here is fine-tuned for maximum cerebral carnage. Why play a normal scale in a normal way at a normal speed, when one can play a bizarre, upside-down bit of nightmare logic at warp nine? Somehow Obsolete is able to bang out riff after riff in this style all over their new album Animate//Isolate. Just as impressively, they string them together into comprehensible structures and memorable songs—a collision of head-bangable death / thrashing goodness and advanced technicality encountered only occasionally in such predecessor bands as Sadus and demo-era Cynic. Adding in occasional splashes of black metal and avant-death dissonance, Obsolete manages to craft a debut album that stands apart from the crowd without resorting to gimmicks or unlistenable experimentation.  With Animate//Isolate, Obsolete have put together one hell of a first salvo. Nine tracks deep and bristling with ideas and hyperactive energy, this is a death / thrash album that any fan of either genre should hear. Creativity. Ferocity. Technicality. Obsolete. Animate. Isolate.

Malformity

Monumental Ruin

Unspeakable Axe

It has been a long, torturous road for the veterans of Atlanta death metal band Malformity. Formed initially in 1991, when their own genre was still in its infancy, they created only a handful of demo recordings before calling it quits four years later. A long-overdue reformation happened in 2014, after which the band produced a couple of EPs and honed their craft. At long last, thirty years after their initial formation, Malformity have produced a monstrous debut album, with the suitably forbidding title Monumental Ruin. Literally decades in the making, this beast shows the band at their sharpest and most evolved, mixing American and European death metal styles with a sure hand. Incorporating grind and doom influences where appropriate, Monumental Ruin is every inch the ancient, towering structure depicted on its atmospheric cover art. This is death metal old in spirit as well as in the age of the band that made it, but with a clear, current-day production and youthful vigor and brutality that keeps pace with any act one might name.

Rabid Beast

Rabid Beast

Unspeakable Axe

Sometimes one doesn’t need a detailed description of a band to know what they sound like. Sometimes a wall of fancy PR hype is just an obstacle, a bunch of wasted words. When a band calls themselves Rabid Beast and their cover art features some kind of demon bird vomiting skulls into the mouths of its babies, there is probably not much more to say. Rabid Beast is a thrash project from members of Drug Honkey and Morgue Supplier—throwback maniacs from Chicago whose other bands defy easy categorization and traffic in real, raw ugliness. This new band takes them away from the realms of death metal and into thrash, in all its precise-yet-chaotic glory. Riffs and drums march in high-speed lockstep, while the vocals are a demented howl of pain and anger, and the solos are not so much melodic statements as shards of chaos pounded straight into the listener’s ear canal. Throw in some interesting songwriting inspired by the cult heroes of the Bay Area scene, and occasional bursts of Voivod-ish dissonance, and one has a truly rare effort for a genre this long in the tooth. Five tracks deep, one a cover of an Infernal Majesty song, this self-titled EP is a straight-up adrenaline injection.

Draghkar

At The Crossroads Of Infinity

Unspeakable Axe

Sunny southern California would seem like an unlikely place for utterly bleak and hopeless death metal to emanate from, but it makes more sense when one considers Draghkar’s roots in the black metal scenes of sun-soaked Italy and Greece, or for that matter the Floridian origins of the earliest death metal, which clearly this band has also absorbed.  With these influences, as well as a healthy infusion of the old Finnish gods, this band is proud to unleash their debut full-length, At The Crossroads Of Infinity. Through six tracks and around a thirtry-five minute runtime, the band hews closely to their purpose: pummeling riffs and pounding rhythms that sear themselves into the brain, and monstrous vocals that send a shiver down the spine. The band acquits itself with confidence here, their best and most polished material following the obligatory run of demos, splits, and EPs. Clearly their time in the trenches, as well as sharing members with other bands like Drawn And Quartered, has made them formidable.

Cemetery Filth

Dominion

Unspeakable Axe

Cemetery Filth are no newcomers to death metal, even though their debut album is just arriving in 2020. They released an EP in 2014, contributed to the first 4 Doors To Death volume in 2016, and followed that with a split EP with Sewercide in 2017. Momentum slowed after that, but at long last, the band has made good on six years of grinding it out in the trenches, and their debut album Dominion is here. This is nothing less than a gauntlet thrown down at the feet of every flavor-of-the-week death metal outfit. Dominion is the band’s personal statement of what death metal should sound like when done the right way. Incorporating a slew of Euro- and American influences, but leaning especially hard into the early Floridian mode of the genre, Cemetery Filth have arrived at their own unique hybrid—a sound that should be comfortingly familiar to longtime fans of the genre, yet not a mere slavish imitation or passionless rehash. This is vital music with blood on its breath, the way death metal is supposed to be.

Shards Of Humanity

Cold Logic

Unspeakable Axe

Memphis-based Shards Of Humanity swam against the tide when their debut was released in 2014. That album was a Death-inspired blast of thrashy riffs, blazing tempos and glass-gargling vocals. Instead of leaning into early, primitive Death, as many bands did (and have done since, e.g. Gruesome), Shards looked to the middle period of the band for influence, hammering strands of Human and Symbolic into new, warped shapes. Now their second album, Cold Logic, has arrived, and the band has pushed every dimension harder than ever. Vocals are hoarse howls of torment; guitars are bigger and bolder, but without the raw edges sanded off. With Pestilence-like thrash riffing and even an Atheist-reminiscent free jazz freakout, this is an album not at all interested in pretending to be primitive, yet still very much connected to the genre’s beating, blood-drenched heart.

Hemotoxin

Restructure The Molded Mind

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Bay Area death / thrashers Hemotoxin are back! Their first full-length in three years finds the band pushing further in every direction—more melodic and undeniably catchy on songs like “Automation,” but also more heavy, abrasive and ferocious on other tracks (e.g. “Corrupted Flesh”). With a stew of influences from traditional heavy metal, to progressive metal and all manner of death and thrash acts, Hemotoxin continue to write the music they want to hear, with a near-total indifference to easily-emulated and trendy sounds.

V/a

4 Doors To Death Vol. Ii

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Three years after it was launched, a second volume has arrived in the 4 Doors To Death split series. This time, four new bands have been brought aboard for an even wilder and more diverse death metal experience. First up is Chicago’s Nucleus, following up their 2019 full-length Entity with two new tracks. Pummeling, abstract sci-fi-themed death metal madness! Following them, Ectoplasma and Fetid Zombie (featuring Mark Riddick, who also contributed the album’s stunning artwork) each deliver an EP-sized chunk of old school death and decay. Closing out the album, Temple Of Void lurch and growl through three new tunes, which will serve as an appetizer to their forthcoming new album, due this spring.

Algebra

Pulse?

Unspeakable Axe

Swiss thrashers Algebra have flown under the radar a bit compared to some in the retro-thrash pack, but perhaps that’s for the best. What they have done on their two prior full-lengths, and continue on ther newest one, Pulse?, is not pitched at the casual crowd that briefly made silly lyrics about moshing and reheated Slayer riffs so popular. Algebra are more earnest and less fashion-forward than that, creating a mix of Bay Area thrash aesthetics with some taste of the technicality and intricacy of their countrymates in Coroner. Lyrics are serious and dark; songs are fully-realized explorations of their chosen genre, long after most bands stopped putting much effort into their writing. Pulse?, like its predecessors, is an excellent outing that would sit comfortably on shelves next to any number of genre classics as well as revered but lesser-known favorites of the ’80s and early ’90s underground.

Ripper

Sensory Stagnation

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Coming out of Chile in 2007, Ripper quickly established themselves as a formidable voice in the current thrash scene—one of the only bands marrying intricate, progressive riffs with overwhelming intensity and speed to rival almost any other outfit in the genre. Following their highly acclaimed second full-length and a successful European tour, they quickly got to work on writing the material that became this new EP, Sensory Stagnation. Five tracks deep and nearly twenty minutes long, this release sees the band elevating their play even further, with an almost Atheist-like technical prowess and intricacy, yet without compromising the power and velocity that fans expect from them.

Critical Defiance

Misconception

Unspeakable Axe

Critical Defiance goes straight for the jugular with their relentless and intricate brand of old-school thrash metal. Though spawned in the depths of Chile's underground, Critical Defiance bear all the markings of a band that came straight from the '80s Bay Area scene. Following two demos and a limited-edition split with Santiago's Parkcrest, Critical Defiance signed with Unspeakable Axe Records for the release of Misconception. This eight-track album is an aggressive assault of violent riffs, shredding, yet melodic leads and shouted group vocals.

Unrest

Grindcore

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Long in the making, Unrest's Grindcore had become almost an urban legend in the Philadelphia metal underground. The guys finally finished it up in 2014, and now it's ready to see the light of day. If the band name doesn’t spell it out for you, the album title surely will. This is nothing but grindcore—stripped down, unpretentious, and loud. At the same time, it’s much more than that. Unrest is comprised of craftsmen from bands both familiar (Woe, Trenchrot and those about to be in Dark Descent’s up-and-coming doom act, Crypt Sermon). The riff and song construction throughout this debut album is right in line from what you’d expect from a group of such capable veterans. They wear their Nasum (and by proxy, Napalm Death) influence on their sleeves, but through sheer mastery of the craft elevate the material well beyond a mere tribute to old masters. Includes a digital download card.

Algebra

Feed The Ego

Unspeakable Axe