Well I managed to write one review that was not thematically inclined towards the end of the world recently but we are back on very familiar scorched earth here. There must be something in the air and here it is rather nasty and radioactive. At least this is no slow lingering demise of humanity but a fast, flash, bang, wallop and it’s all over before you can even take in the beauty of mushroom cloud formations. Our end-time advocates here are from South Carolina and comprise of Pu239 drums and backing vocals and U235 guitars and main vocals. This may well be their first album which has aptly seen them picked up by Godz Ov War but the pair have between them been involved previously in the likes of Black Eucharist, Black Ejaculate, Demiser and False Light among others. Let’s press the button and detonate things.

Starting the eight track rampage is ‘Pulpit of the Conqueror (Mutually Assured Desecration)’ and that should give you a clear indication what to expect. This is brutal and pulverising death metal which borders on black and war metal mania. Drums thump like explosives and cause concussion, guitars grind and fly up and down the scales with sharp squalling cadence and the vocals range between main higher rasping pitch and backing low, growls sounding like their perpetrator is trying to cough up a lung. Lyrically things are kept to the utmost minimum second track ‘Nuclear Aggression’ for example simply containing the words “Savagery claws out from the soot Barbarity encompasses all.” Between tracks however are eerie samples warning of imminent attack, sounds of general warfare and even a “get some” sample straight outta a helicopter attack in Full Metal Jacket.

It goes without saying this is as the name suggests both extremely primitive and hostile. It’s designed for those who like to be obliterated by heaving attacks of discourse and mangled by their music. Brute force and the repetitive nature of the material go hand in hand but this is far from tuneless (well at least to my ears) and there’s plenty of churning groove to be found among the wreckage of tracks such as ‘Engulfed By Satanic Might.’ Interestingly the album has a seal of endorsement from none other than Igor Cavalera who had his ears ruptured by it and declares it reminds him of “the early days of South American Black Metal with modern sounding sonic craft.” It’s fair to say lovers of non-compromising artists such as Blasphemy, Archgoat and Revenge will also be likely to happily dig a trench and embed themselves behind sandbags for the album’s 31-minute running time.

There are some slow parts such as the stuck in mud and stop-start battery of ‘Witness’ but they are brief before the tank extricates itself rattles on crushing skulls once more with some of that leaden rolling groove. By the time this has delivered its payload with the grindcore punk sounding death rattle of ‘Heretic Crusade,’ one thing is for sure, this is definitely not a test! Extra mention also has to go to the band logo which is one of the most indistinguishable blurs I have seen in a long time.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/extinction-protocol