If you have read my reviews of the Cult Graves and Evulsed released from Godz Ov War Productions then you can add another US brutal death metal act to that list of pounding mayhem. This is the bands second full length and comes on the back of a couple of previous EPs as this band know exactly how to inflict the maximum amount of grievous sonic harm as possible. The short creepy intro piece lures the listener into a tangled web of unbridled ferocity that follows with ‘Unholy Graves’. The buzzsaw guitar sound carves off chunks of flesh with remorseless glee as the opener has tenets of Entombed from their early era.

There is no resting as the album smashes in with ‘Thrive In Blasphemy’ as their sense of empowering urgency courses through the album. But like any good death metal band they utilise exceptionally catchy sections too, reeling the velocity in for some grisly gnarly pieces. This album is loaded with fantastic riffs as their sense of groove dementedness powers every song along like afterburners on full thrust as on ‘Last Nail In The Coffin’. It is that sense of melody that enables Helslave to stand above the parapet, so to speak, as their groove is infectious on all the songs it is deployed.

Slowing things down substantially is ‘Funereal Lust’ a track of saturating savagery unleashing tsunamis of double kick cannonades that increase the songs intensity hugely. Their slow gnarly delivery has a retro aura as the late Mr Petrov (Entombed) rears up in the vocal style, utilising a guttural deepness but retaining a sense of clarity as well. The massive density of ‘Desecration’ does little to lower the impenetrability of this album, preferring to beat and maul with a barrage of unremitting brutality, as again the song is laced with their own brand of melody and groove.

The closing doublet ‘Rotting Pile Of Flesh’ and ‘The Sentence Of The Living’ continue the sonic sewerage as fans of Bolt Thrower will get a kick out of the latter with its fade-in styling that the UK band used a fair bit on their songs. The former is unmitigated wrath, blasted speeds as the song is sliced in half with its cool slower pacing and a double bass charge that seems to roar from the speakers. The closer has that Bolt Thrower ethos as I stated, as the tune plummets into a doom-death posture with its invasive density.

Gargantuan death metal filth from Helslave that brandishes an animalistic fervour that fans of ultra-brutal dense death metal should investigate.

(8.5/10 Martin Harris)

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https://pulverised.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-sulphur-depths