Rating: 8.0

Country: UK

Release Date: 2006

Track list:
1.Ornamentum
2.Operation Overlord
3.Violated Purity [mp3]
4.Deathless Steel Command
5.Stormbearer
6.The Glorious Dead
7.Destroying The Law of Jahweh [mp3]
8.Dominion
9.Nuclear Imperator
10.Aftermath

Band Website: Spearhead

Spearhead - Deathless Steel Command

Barghest - Bass/Vocals
Invictus - Rhythm Guitars
Nephilim - Lead Guitars
Vortigern - Drums

My first impression upon hearing the beginning of this CD was “wow, this sounds rather Swedish”. Note that by Swedish I mean Dismember, early Darkthrone (semantics fuck off) and Grave, not gay bouncy gothenburger melody-core bollocks. Then the drummer decided to impersonate a machine gun and I realized what we're dealing with is a near-perfect fusion of ancient death metal, blackened atmosphere and savage speed-driven chaos. The production here is completely drenched in reverb while remaining extremely clear and intense, and fits like a painted-on glove.

Initially the songwriting may seem a bit disjointed, lurching from one riff to another while the rhythm alternates between midpaced thrashing and hyperspeed violence. But around halfway through it all starts to make sense somehow. This is one seriously compelling album which strikes a good balance between catchiness and overpowering viciousness. Not to mention there's three songs in a row containing the words “Death” and “Dead”, which almost rivals Dark Angel's classic ‘Darkness Descends' for sheer awesome death-fixation.

This is even more amazing considering the band being from England, which is hardly known as a stronghold for this sort of stuff. Sure, the country has produced a fair few awesome bands over the years, but nothing of any real staying power since, well, Carcass and Bolt Thrower in all honesty. If anything, these guys have taken up where Bolt Thrower left off with ‘Realm of Chaos', and dragged that sort of war-themed epic-yet-psychotic metal kicking and screaming into the modern age with a good dose of Satanic hatred thrown in for good measure. Which is great, because it's about fucking time the country where Metal was born came up with something worth kicking up a fuss about.

The tape version of this is already out, and the Regimental Records CD version is imminent. I recommend investment, lest you miss out on this short sharp stab to the throat and end up being a self-loathing emo wuss as a result.

March 12th, 2006