Some major damage going on here. The cover shows a bombed out and totally devastated scene that looks like somewhere such as Dresden in WWII. There’s a tank on the back cover and inside a shiny disc with 2 bands causing utmost destruction. One of them we know very well having been following the Birmingham based duo since their formation and the other mob from allied forces in Holland are completely new to us. Let’s see how this campaign fares.

Well Brum bruisers Arrogant Destruktor [7] have been honing their skills over time and have delivered a couple of EP’s and a compilation prior to this work. The duo who are A.T and A.R have also been assisted by the drumming and engineering prowess of Anil Carrier known for his work in many an underground outfit from Binah to No More Room In Hell and Towers Of Flesh and as we will mention later having a good sound is of uttermost importance and thankfully here it is nice and beefy all round. They have 3 main tracks and start with ‘Seed Of The Aeons’ absolutely battering in without compromise. There’s some particularly potent gruff vocals as they loosen up from an all-out attack with a jagged and bouncy rhythm. It steams away and cracks skulls but has plenty of control as well as sense of melody putting things in a blackened death context to my ears rather than just focussing on the black side of things. A neat sense of galloping bravado infects and the main tracks here are left with plenty of time to develop and get their anger and violence across well. ‘All Things; It Devours’ adds to the sense of well played musicianship with some pure metal licks from the guitar before romping off and cleaving away. It’s a slight surprise at first but works well and shows other dimensions to the main formidable assault which is full of groovy riffs and strafing drum fire. Another facet that particularly impressed are some winding grinding chops reminiscent of Aura Noir on the third number ‘Invocations and Conjurings In The Name Of Woden’ which has black thrashing demeanour to it. There’s an interesting Winterfylleth sounding acoustic heathen folk instrumental number tagged on the end here too. I reckon putting this lot along with Sturmtiger and Eastern Front on a bill would leave a venue completely shelled and it must be time for a debut album soon.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said for comrades Wrang [5] The main problem here once you have recovered from jumping out your skin as the volume levels shoot right up is that their part sounds like it has been recorded in a steel shed. Any hope of control is lost to screeching sharp treble heavy clattering noise. It’s pure demo quality and difficult to get a full sense of. With one demo previous to this it’s not the best 1st encounter but one gets a sense of ugly and hostile black metal from their songs such as ‘Armia Krajowa’ which also tackles war flavours full on and makes me wonder if the band have anything in the way of Polish roots. This really has the feel of a live recording and I find myself listening out for audience between tracks. It feels like things go on far too long with their numbers too but I think that’s more due to the fact that the sharpness makes it actually uncomfortable to listen to, which is a shame as under the right circumstances I am sure I would quite like this. There’s definitely some sinister guitar parts crawling through ‘Morbide Delirium as well as some necrotic vocal parts and even a well-placed death grunt but I’m pretty much forced to give up rather than try and dissect their tracks in any more detail. Hopefully we will meet again on the field of battle when they are armed with the right equipment for the job.

(Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/arrogantdestruktor

https://www.facebook.com/wrangblackmetal