No shortage of stuff coming out of Australia at the moment and following hot on the heels of albums by Resin Tomb and Vipassi here we have another band Tanin’iver from Adelaide. During the last few nights I have also inadvertently watched a couple of films from Oz too, prison riot classic Stir (1980) and crazy crime romp Suburban Mayhem (2006) so it’s hardly surprising I’m feeling somewhat Antipodean. Would love to visit but not get locked up there but I digress and you might be wondering what the strange sounding name of this lot means although it will probably come as no surprise that it is an evil cosmic entity, “the blind dragon steed of Lilith in ancient mythology.”

With that sorted, what we have here is a blackened death outfit primarily the work of Steve Lillywhite (also of Christ Dismembered) although on this, their fourth album, he is joined by Liam Mohor on lead guitar and bass. On first play of this album and listening to the pummelling thunder (from down under) of songs such as opener ‘Another World’s Hell’ I was struck by just how good the drummer sounded. Then checking further, I realised there was no human drummer listed in the credits (don’t you just hate it when that happens) and it was, I assume, down to the programming for percussive bombast. Well, it still impressed so all hail the machine! Another stand out facet are the scabrous vocal snarls. Growling in a beastly fashion there’s plenty of venom in them, most of it directed towards the religious masses. Add some groove laden melody from the guitar department and you have a tried and tested sound but one that will have you respectfully bouncing away in time. Slowing momentarily at times as on ‘Disrepair’ things crunch and crush as they unrelentingly roll over a broken terrain. However, it’s at complete decimation levels where they excel and the calamitous turmoil of Separatist’ sees them on maximum, militant overdrive and particularly lethal.

Snapping away and surging admirably over its nine tracks and ¾ of an hour’s playing time it takes a while to peel back the layers here but the end result is suitably impressive. From the jubilant sounding vitriol of ‘Better The Devil’ to the apocalyptically tinged dystopia of ‘Freedom Is Never Free’ there’s a fair bit of variation here to keep the interest levels up. Add some solid blasting, sounds of war, clashing cymbals and the ever hostile vocals and you have an album that should certainly appeal to fans of bands such as Belphegor and Behemoth.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://taniniver.bandcamp.com/album/dark-evils-desecrate-2