Slaughtbbath - Hail to Fire (2013)

   Before their full-length debut Slaughtbbath have been around since a decade and pad plenty of demo and split-album appearances. Even though their music sounded very promising and impressive in this long lasting early period already, it was definitely worth to wait for "Hail to Fire".

    While traditional black metal themes had high role in their early music, it could have been continuously sensed that there's something more, some deviant intention in the background. And by "Hail o Fire" basically one of the most intense and devastating war metal albums was released. By focusing on the tiny differences the subgenre allows, it's possible to distinguish their style and sound from the American-Canadian classics. Slaughtbbath have a slightly more old school approach, that's more related to their local scene. The combination of insane intensity and the excellent sound might remind to Grave Desecrator. And this means enjoyability in the traditional way had the same importance for them as overwhelming brutality. Rehearsal sound quality might result raw impression, could build on making the music harder to go into, could let the atmosphere to gain role, and it's even able to hide performance failures. It's also possible to explain that the sound is bad cause it's intended to be like that, while in practice lower investment just led to higher profit as it has happened plenty of times in black metal. But if it's about the effectiveness of extremity, nothing could beat a sound that exposes the competence of the musicians and assists the style to show its best the same time. "Hail to Fire" is not only a black metal or war metal masterpiece, but an outstanding record in the extreme scene in general.