Reviews – Danmark – BLABBERMOUTH.NET

Demise metallic is commonly at its simplest when it conveys one thing extra than simply bare aggression. Generally, brutality and method are sufficient, however when a band delivers each riff and growl as if they’re immediately channeling some darkish, otherworldly power, that is when the magic occurs. Regardless of a relatively lowly popularity, THORIUM are precisely that type of band. Solely their fifth album in a 25-year profession, “Danmark” exudes such a robust sense of haughty, imperious disdain that you could be fairly surprise why the Danes are usually not vastly higher recognized.

Successfully a showcase for the brand new line-up that assembled not lengthy after the discharge of 2018’s “Blasphemy Awakes”, “Danmark” verges on being a masterclass in dying metallic songwriting. With a sound that’s rooted within the grandiose brutality of data like MORBID ANGEL‘s “Domination” and HYPOCRISY‘s “Kidnapped” however with a tangibly blackened streak operating by way of its slower, creepier moments, every thing from opener “Warfare Is Coming” to the closing “Into The Gods” oozes muscular authority. In fact, whereas THORIUM have by no means made a foul album, “Danmark” towers over all their previous efforts, significantly in terms of an album’s desired ebb and circulate. It kicks off with the bombastic threats of “Warfare Is Coming” and the mid-paced mutiny of “A Crown To Obscurity”, earlier than hurtling down the deathly rabbit gap for “Majesty”; a warped, DEICIDE-tinged blizzard of blasts and scabrous thrash. In distinction, the profoundly unsavory “Semen Of The Satan” surfs alongside on pounding, quasi-industrial pulse that allows THORIUM to discover extra daring dynamics.

Taking the tempo right down to a worm-like slither, “The Silent Struggling” is a grim, instrumental interlude that gives a short second of restraint; “Defiance”, which follows, is a rugged and succinct slab of mildly ingenious, old-school perfection.

THORIUM save one of the best for final. “Reign The Abyss” is bleak, grandiloquent and critically fucking hostile, with a few of the greatest dying / doom riffs in latest reminiscence. “9 Lives” weaves post-punk menace and jaw-cracking D-beats into an already profitable method; arguably the best music right here, “Into The Gods” is enjoyably CARCASS-like in its bewildering, continuous stream of riffs and deft tempo shifts. None of it strays removed from the overwhelmed path, however this band have plainly honed their craft over the past quarter-of-a-century, and “Danmark” is each a definitive assertion and a deeply stylish present of energy.