Watch out, things are about to go thermonuclear! Grave Heresy from Sweden present the second example of what I would class War Metal from this distinguished Polish label recently. If you were mad enough to play this album back to back with US comrades Primitive Warfare’s ‘Extinction Protocol’ it would be comparable to sitting down to a double bill of Threads and The War Game which is a pretty harrowing proposition no matter how you look at it. These four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are detonating their debut release here, no demos or anything else seemingly prior to it. They have adopted names such as Ox, Anonymous Undeity of Corpse Incineration & Vengeful Hate Vomiter and Weaponized Apostasy but titter ye not, Nuclear War is no laughing matter and this is serious stuff. Time to press play and see what happens when the wind blows.

The first missile is a Russian based one also known as Satan II and Intro ‘Sarmat Dawn’ is an effective one. We countdown with some seriously odd sonic squelching noises that sound like a bubbling vat of radioactive waste. Launch successful it’s time for first strike proper, ‘Attenuating the Flesh Threshold.’ Thud, growl, roar, bark, scree and no chance of running for cover. Old Vengeful is drummer and vocalist and throws everything out his arsenal here while the two guitarists and bassist churn and mangle everything else. The sound is deep and booming like a barrage of bombs flattening everything and turning the earth to ground zero. Solos do slither out and the impact is a slimy one. Tracks such as ‘Christ Unpermanence (Attrition Hammer of Anti)’ are prolonged assaults at over six minutes when one would have anticipated a simpler three-minute warning. Indeed, the album runs at 39 and that’s quite a bit to deal with considering the all-out brutality here. Although it sounds like grunts and groans along with one well-place falsetto scream, it’s quite wordy lyrically. Take the preposterously named ‘Onset of Hexakosioihexekontahexaphilic Conquest’ (yes it’s fear of the number 666) along with lyrics such as “Quasi-visceral emitting Flaying the grotesque space Wandering perverters of the yield Singing beacons of perdition Rotting sinusoid Breathing through vile phlegm…” and you get the gist of things; death ain’t gonna be pleasant.

Make no mistake it’s unrelenting too, rolling over you in a somewhat hypnotic fashion like a mushroom cloud and corresponding flash you just can’t take your eyes away from, for the few seconds of life you have left that is. The title track changes pace and is a doomy morass with some apocalyptic bottom end wrought out and rumbling away in a really unsettling fashion. By comparison ‘Ageless Onslaught’ throws in death belch and vomits out a slew of squealing guitars which whiplash like lightning strikes amidst an acid rain storm as they screech up and down the fretboard. Ride the groove of ‘Mass Death Proclamation’ and sit on the bomb Doctor Strangelove style for a rugged ride full of bouncy percussion and by now the end of all ends is in sight. Final track ‘Warhead Worship’ gives me other literary insight and I can’t help but thinking of the character Trashcan Man from Stephen King’s The Stand riding through the desert on a chariot of death, “”bumpty, bumpty, bump!” and “my life for you.” Anyone tackling this will not come out unscathed and it really is designed for the hardiest of end-time devotees who are looking for a massive crater sized musical impact. But remember folks, you cannot win a nuclear war. Oof!

(8/10 Pete Woods)

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/incineration-victory