When the “personal interests” on your Facebook page are listed as “Blasphemy, Perversion, War Themes, Weight Lifting, Conqueror, Mass Alcohol Consumption, Revenge, Angelcorpse, Sarcofago, Old Deicide, Old Morbid Angel, Proclamation, Teitanblood, Bestial Warlust, Deiphago, Diocletian, Old Obituary” you’re gonna somewhat pique my interest aren’t ya? So here we have Texas based blackened death metal crew Trench Warfare with their debut full length “Hatred Prayer” and this is not a record to be taken lightly.

Following in from their 2015 split album with Formulus / Sturmtiger / Celestial Plague and Church of Disgust (an bunch of feel-good party anthems this was not)  the lads have delivered twelve absolutely scorching tracks here and, with a total run time of just over half an hour you’re not gonna have a chance to get bored of “Hatred Prayer” with it’s full on sonic assault.

Opening with “Decimate Legions” – the intro of which brings the start of “The Terminator” to mind with its “pew pew” laser blasts & crunching footsteps we’re off into the song proper which is a cracker and reminds me of “Scream Bloody Gore” era Death which leads straight into the ripping “Spare No Wrath” followed by “Axioms” which is a change of pace – at least for the grinding guitars, the drums are still set to “lunacy” and really ‘pop’ throughout this album.

The beastial onslaught continues thoroughout until we get to the song “Young Lord” which has a totally different vibe, almost like an old DRI track with it’s punked up thrash tones. “New Lord” slows things down to a snail’s pace as it lumbers onwards steadily building momentum like a heavily damaged tank on one last charge into the enemy lines.

Trench Warfare show a very multifaceted side to what can be a bit of a one dimensional musical path. Mixing doom-like heaviness with an almost Sarcofago / Angel Corpse / Mortician speedfest and some downright evil vocals from Jay Gorania make this a really cool and very listenable release that should deliver the goods for any fan of proper death metal. Great stuff.

(8/10 Mark Eve)

https://www.facebook.com/trenchwarfaretexas

https://trenchwarfaremetal.bandcamp.com/album/hatred-prayer-black-death-metal