Powerfully growled vocals and satisfyingly down-tuned buzzsaw guitars combine with a decidedly fluent rhythm section to impressive effect, as Deathfiend unleash a brutally heavy death metal onslaught. Deathfiend hail from Birmingham and are UK crust veterans, which is apt as both the city and that scene were integral to shaping English death metal in the late 1980s. And it is a heritage that they have vividly reanimated on this their debut LP. The emphasis is very much on the doom-laden, punk imbued groove of that era, rather than the more technical expressions of much contemporary death metal. Karl Willetts (Bolt Thrower / Memoriam) aptly guest vocals on a track, and the black’n’roll phase of Entombed is another yardstick, as is Harmony Corruption-era Napalm Death through their shared love of a crushing mid-paced breakdown.