It was 2015 since we last heard from these malevolent French destructors. Since they released Xeno Kaos back in 2015 they have marked their 20th anniversary and had a couple of line-up shuffles. Firstly after a few years in the wilderness, guitarist Astaroth has returned to the fold and having surely had a bit of a Spinal Tap dilemma with no less than 5 drummers exploding from the formation they have invited number 6 Michaël Martin to join them. Now taking this fact and the album title into consideration he must be a brave man and will need to be a serious blasterbator but considering he has previously served time in Fleshdoll and Exocrine we need worry not. After an instrumental orchestral prelude courtesy of Déhà, man of a thousand bands including Wolvenest and Cult Of Erinyes, flesh is well and truly bored but the listener won’t be in the slightest.

This is fast, furious and toxic stuff. One would be tempted to call it Satanic but we know the group have stated “No God No Satan” in the past and although the atmosphere is demonic this ‘Incursion Of Chaos’ turns mortal remains to dust without direction to other plains of further existence. Tracks are rattled off in fast and precise fashion, one gets the impression that in downtime the group have decided to cut anything in the way of lean and get to the meat of the matter, suitably rancid it is too. Founding member Dagoth’s course roars are lethal, the guitars whiplashing around them like angry beasts and the blackened death tumult taking nothing in the way of prisoners. At the end of 3rd track ‘Xenos’ there is also the largest explosion heard on an album in a long time; serious nuclear devastation has been ordained and on first listen I practically jumped out my skin. Somehow though perhaps after a dose of radiation the heaving ‘Blessed By Pestilence’ jaggedly churns on complete with some sci-fi sounding post-apocalyptic vocal gurgles.

Otargos have always had a bit of a futuristic bent to their sound and having seen their strobe heavy stage show I can contest it follows them into their live displays. The title track here perhaps suggests the remnants of mankind enslaved by alien overlords, flagellated into submission. It’s a completely hostile takeover and if you are looking for all out brutality the album goes out of its way to deliver. Listening to it you can easily hear why they have worn down so many drummers but the new one does a formidable job. ‘Daemonfire’ slows the tempo slightly to a doomy crush adding atmosphere and hoary vocal chants are spat out leaving little hope for the remnants of humanity. As for ‘Cyclones Of Steel’ not only could it be a Sergio Martino sci-fi romp but it is also full of chaos with electronic bleeps sounding like a spacecraft hurtling to crash down on earth after being laser blasted out the sky.

I just have the standard 10 tracks here which really do leave you feeling like you have been invaded by alien parasites whilst suffering a particularly nasty anal probe. Other versions include up to 3 bonus tracks which no doubt make the experience even more intense. A backwards masked message in the form of ‘Warp’ is left for me to ponder over here and I expect it’s a dreadful one considering they destroyed the planet so early on. Hell on earth in musical form, well and truly accomplished.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/OTARGOSband

https://xenokorp.bandcamp.com/album/fleshborer-soulflayer