Destroyer 666

Defiance (Season of Mist)
By Mike Delano

If you’re looking for focused, hyper-aggressive metal, your séances have been answered. The “Australian and Antichrist” Destroyer 666 rain non-stop murder on Defiance, their first album in six years. Pitch-perfect at nine tracks in 40 minutes, they only pull back on closer “A Sermon to the Dead,” but the blastbeats only subside to create a vortex of howls and churning guitars that drags, rather than pummels, you into oblivion. Prior to that, the album rages with a singular purpose, with tracks like “The Barricades are Breaking” and “I Am Not Deceived” standing tall alongside the similarly brutal, efficient extreme metal that Goatwhore and Burnt By The Sun have released recently. But Destroyer’s got a few tricks up their sleeve, and it’s to their credit that they can experiment and still stay true. As blasphemous a comparison as it may seem, “Blood for Blood” has a pummeling groove that embodies the harsh sound that modern, thrash-focused Soulfly always stops just short of. Meanwhile, “A Stand Defiant” sneaks a snake charmer vibe somewhere inside its multi-part assault, and the aforementioned “Sermon” uses clean vocals to create an unnerving sense of desolation.
(www.seasonofmist.com)