Critical Defiance: Rivers of Blood
Out 25th September on Dying Victims Productions
2024 was the year Critical Defiance suddenly caught the attention of a broader international audience with ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’, a finely crafted treat of frenetic thrash fair alongside some well integrated oddball moments. The Chilean death and thrash metal scene has pulled well ahead of the pack in the last ten years, and with this latest release, Critical Defiance cement their place at the head of the assault. They may be less adventurous than their progressive peers Demoniac (who also have a new album on the books), but here they assert themselves as the reliable choice for quality riffing coloured with a progressive, eclectic hue. In just barely half an hour Critical Defiance manage to cover all bases, delivering urgent thrash runs defined by raw physicalism as much as technical flair, alongside delicate acoustic guitar vignettes and a progressive cosmopolitism, injecting quotations and references across metal styles and beyond despite the highly restrictive space.
The production is perhaps the least noteworthy element of this album, but even this in itself is a virtue. No flamboyant liberties were taken at the mixing desk to detract from this already rather flamboyant development of thrash metal. Guitars remain dominant, but the bass cuts through like a knife, occasionally rising to the fore as a lead instrument, exhibiting a metallic, jangling tone that allows for full articulation with no inertial baggage. Frantic drums sit happily beneath, bolstering the guitars with their rhythmic muscle by following the gradients of the riffs. A technically precise and creative performance that is happy to remain in a supportive role regardless, never stealing the thunder of the lead instruments. Alvarado’s barked vocal delivery is more vicious than ever, extending out his expressive range with quickfire percussive lines to elongated notes of almost maniacal intent.
The album moves from the deceptively fragile opening of ‘Red Omen’ through a dense array of eclectic modern thrash, informed by death and black metal along the way, with a garnish of lighter classic metal melodicism, all delivered with a machinelike efficiency. But as things progress and we move into the title track the tempo drops to an assertive marching pace, this allows Critical Defiance to showcase themselves in a more open, considered light. The intensity does not let up however, as opening, lingering notes and distant siren like guitar wails decorate a backdrop reminiscent of late 80s Bathory for the militaristic yet straightforwardly evil design behind the music. This is just one example among many of Critical Defiance taking an unexpected left turn, as if determined to demonstrate the quality of their tastes and influences as much as their ability to work these disparate elements into a focused, tightly performed finished product. As we move through to ‘Valparaiso’ things take a more progressive turn, some time signatures largely alien to thrash metal make an appearance, and bright, playful clean guitar arpeggios lead us into the second half of the album, with a further technical array of juiced up Megadeth style riffing. The material finds a balance between the simple joys to be found in music and musicality and a more cerebral approach loaded with implication and talking points to mull over.
Anticipation is a dangerous thing, more often than not leading to disappointment. Or else it takes time to grow accustomed to the new direction an artist has taken, requiring one to work through the material multiple times to form an opinion like a cow chewing cud. ‘Rivers of Blood’ is neither of these. An album whose virtues and clear upgrade on previous works are apparent within the first five minutes. A filling, densely packed, calorific protein bar of adventurous contemporary metal whose many sides should appeal well beyond the niche of the modern thrash addict.
Taufpatin: Les Malfaisances de la Taufpatin
Out 7th October on Antiq
Flowery mid-paced symphonic black metal bleeding into generic heavy/folk filler in order to get this over the full length line. This album has me torn. My reflex is to assert that it is far too enamoured with its fairytale concept material to articulate any distinct musical vision beyond rather generic flourishes. The pacing, exchanging lead segments between keyboards and bouncy guitars, and the melodramatic vocals are all put in service of an overcooked theme that takes precedence over a substantive musical dialogue. However – and to resist this reflex for a moment – a case could be made for this being a perfectly legitimate move in the 2020s. We all know that originality in the truest sense is in short supply, borderline impossible even. The best contemporary material finds a way to work within a set of defined parameters and eke out new creative space from this more restricted position. Treating metal as a kind of folk resource, in this case a means of telling some fantasy story, could be one way to approach this. The effect is akin to hearing a recording of a theatrical performance, with a cast of characters, motifs, and a clear sequence of acts. In pure musical terms its underdeveloped and hard to swallow, but in dramatic terms one could argue that it definitely has legs.
Hyver: La Fête de la Forêt Enchantée
Out 8th October on Antiq
Hyver move in a black metal direction following their dungeon synth RPG vehicle ‘Shaâtaunoâr’. But they still insist upon a novelty. Here it takes the form of lo-fi, melodic black metal with vocals provided by bat shrieks, although they sound more like birds to me (I’m no chiropterologist). Regardless of this however, the music gets by on a degree of charm and whimsy despite its limited substance. The album feels more like a series of simple dungeon synth vignettes that were later set to a basic black metal backing track. The metal instrumentation contains little life or variety, its purpose seemingly to flesh out the atmosphere and provide some momentum to the fairytale naivety of the keyboard lines. It wouldn’t be untoward therefore to regard this not as a metal album but an ambient album with some incidental black metal colouring. There is no motion or development to the pieces. They appear to simply luxuriate in the fantastical, dreamlike mist of atmosphere without the need to furnish us with further context. Within this limited remit Hyver have achieved a minor curiosity within the dungeon synth oeuvre.
Carceral: Descending Reprisal
Out 9th October on I, Voidhanger Records
Shortform instrumental death metal is, on paper at least, an interesting proposition. Here presented and performed to the most technically dazzling standards, to the point that the finished product feels perhaps almost too clinical. But the real problem with this material is its very brevity. Moment to moment it is captivating enough. Choppy, dense riff segments shift between tempos and open sequences with ease, accompanied – in the absence of vocals one presumes – by near constant lead guitar (and often lead bass) material. But as the majority of tracks barely broach the two minute mark, there is no time for ideas to reach their fruition. Shortform composition can work in a technical context, but it requires a certain compositional efficiency and editorial brutality sadly lacking here. The result is a high quality demo reel. A kind of starter pack of death and thrash metal ideas for anyone looking for inspiration. Satisfying to the listener in its immediacy, not least for how seamlessly it all flows together. But in its totality it is more like popcorn, addictive yet ultimately unfulfilling.
In Obscurity Revealed: Caustic Maelstrom
Out 9th October on Personal Records
Chaotic death metal manages to wrest the on-trend chasmic atmospheres in service of a well realised riff dialogue. The result is a work that knits its explicit aesthetic intentions with at least a degree of additional architecture, a modest first step in communicating a clear identity through death metal, but a step so many others fail to take. Drawing on Incantation at their most rampant and chaotic, this lurks as a background influence, along with some nods to the more muscular end of USBM. This is fluid, linear, atmospheric death metal. Any disruptive, staccato riffs are rendered so as to not disrupt the flow of blast-beats, meaning any percussive tangents are largely lacking. The effect is refreshingly austere given the fact that In Obscurity Revealed are more than capable of renewing the melodic picture at frequent intervals to avoid monotony, without falling back on chasmic doom filler to paint over any cracks. All is tight, intentional, and chugs along at an impressive pace despite the size and scope behind the delivery.
Mutation: Esoteric Order of Debauchery
Out 9th October on Hells Headbangers
Reaches back to the likes of Merciless, Chile’s Pentagram, or early Morbid Angel, a time when death metal still had a monopoly over explicitly evil expressions in an extreme metal context, and in this sense we get a refreshing rerun of an oft overlooked pocket of extreme metal evolution in the late 80s. A time when death metal had severed with thrash, but before black metal showed signs of consciousness. The production retains enough bight to appear authentic, with somewhat bass heavy drums adding body to the low end, allowing the guitars to move into spikier, thrash derived tones reminiscent of early Slayer or Kreator. Mutation betray (in a good way) their modern context however in the sheer freneticism of the delivery. As an update on a retro sound this serves its purpose, displaying an adept conversational style whilst playing with the form. It fails to reach the aggressively quirky heights of someone like Ultra Silvam maybe, but as an uncomplicated celebration of theatrical early death metal it remains an interesting outlier more likely to appeal to the interests of a contemporary audience.
Dominion: Mortification of Thy Flesh
Out 12th October on Sinistrari
Simplistic revivalist death metal at least offers something refreshing in its commitment to rudimentary riff construction, sloppy playing, and bare bones production values. Some flourishes of eccentricity decorate an otherwise flat affair of chugging, mid-paced death metal. But there is an oddly clarifying quality to this material akin to the monomaniacally axiomatic approach of Mortician. Admittedly there is more going on across this material, but the underlying backbone of each track is oddly relentless, pivoting on two or three ideas, atop which very basic variations are built along with a handful of melodic accents. As an intellectual study, dissecting death metal down to its very sinews, time with this album feels well spent. But when taken against the more imaginative material coming out of the genre this year very little is missed in passing over this one.
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