Spearhead- TheomachiaA blistering whirlwind of Blackened Death Metal hate, Theomachia takes square aim at both originality and your cranium and pulverizes them to dust and chunks. Their patron god Angelcorpse would be highly impressed with this dominating, jack-hammer Death Metal, and so am I. I might have heard this album before, or three times to be exact, but damn it all if Theomachia doesn't beat me to a joyous death every time I listen to it.
A powerful new player in England's suddenly burgeoning Death Metal scene, Spearhead make no bones about their Angelcorpse influence, but over-come their creative short comings through sheer inhuman intensity. Drummer Torturer(what a fitting name) embodies the war machine, hammering your senses like a trench is hammered by artillery fire, again and again and again. His performace behind the skins(no doubt crafted from the flesh of his fallen enemies) is the highlight of this monstrous slab of pure death. Everything else follows suit: the guitar work is fucking fast, the low-end rumbles and the vocals are mad with anger and fury. Theomachia moves like clockwork from start to finish, delivering the goods in classic all-killer-no-filler style. It's hard not to step back and listen in awe to how tight, purposeful and violent Theomachia really is. A better crafted piece of worship you will not find.
Worship, however, is all there is to be found on Theomachia. With the exception of the final track, this album follows the well obliterated path of Angelcorpse most of the way. "Aftermath," the purely instrumental final track, has Spearhead toying with melody and dissonance, but as the title of the track explains, this is only after the war is over and the corpses have been piled so high as to block out the Sun. And what a glorious mountain of corpses it is, even if I have seen more than a few in my day.
Rating: 8.5/10
A powerful new player in England's suddenly burgeoning Death Metal scene, Spearhead make no bones about their Angelcorpse influence, but over-come their creative short comings through sheer inhuman intensity. Drummer Torturer(what a fitting name) embodies the war machine, hammering your senses like a trench is hammered by artillery fire, again and again and again. His performace behind the skins(no doubt crafted from the flesh of his fallen enemies) is the highlight of this monstrous slab of pure death. Everything else follows suit: the guitar work is fucking fast, the low-end rumbles and the vocals are mad with anger and fury. Theomachia moves like clockwork from start to finish, delivering the goods in classic all-killer-no-filler style. It's hard not to step back and listen in awe to how tight, purposeful and violent Theomachia really is. A better crafted piece of worship you will not find.
Worship, however, is all there is to be found on Theomachia. With the exception of the final track, this album follows the well obliterated path of Angelcorpse most of the way. "Aftermath," the purely instrumental final track, has Spearhead toying with melody and dissonance, but as the title of the track explains, this is only after the war is over and the corpses have been piled so high as to block out the Sun. And what a glorious mountain of corpses it is, even if I have seen more than a few in my day.
Rating: 8.5/10
