The track title “Thermonuclear Predator” gives the not so well concealed game away. Destruction is the byword of this black metal band from Germany, whose third album this is. Hard-hitting and of course heavy, this vigorous and furious assault gives no leeway for compromise. Destroying the planet, which by chance is the name of their 2019 EP, killing and chaos – it’s all there.

“Coração Sinistro” starts off with the scream of someone trying to scare someone at Halloween. On he rasps to the merciless backdrop of withering instrumentals. It’s all very familiar. Sometimes it’s frantic. At other times there’s more melody. It’s ugly stuff as it’s supposed to be. I do wonder if this over the top performance is an attempt at extremity for its own sake. Yet I can’t deny the intensity and flow of the drums and guitar work. Walls are broken down as Darkmoon Warrior batter their way through the songs. There’s a deathliness, which is reminiscent of Dark Fortress, none more so than on “Into Thy Crimson Realms”. This was by far my favourite track as it is like an atmospheric and creepy representation of death. By contrast “Blackmetal Anarchy” is every bit as clichéd as its title. Great drum work and a pulsating riff line though. I’ve got past the point of singing along to choruses like “blackmetal anarchy”, and whilst I can’t speak for the world I can’t recall others doing this at concerts. From this we go to the doomier “Svjatogor”. This builds up nicely, and develops into the developing death feel of the earlier “Into Thy Crimson Realms”. This is far more interesting than “Blackmetal Anarchy”. “Brenne für Mich” is fiery and grim, and has a nice instrumental section towards the end. The final, title track then sums it up with a thrashing, dirty piece of black metal. As ever it’s interesting instrumentally but in spite of the violence and aggression, for me it was neither interesting nor explosive other than the five seconds at the end.

I found that “Angels of Dirt, Beasts of Rebellion” was a bit of a mixed bag. This was surprising considering that Darkmoon Warrior have been around for over 20 years, and have three albums along with numerous demos and a couple of EP’s to their name. There’s energy and technical skill in the instrumental work but overall I was disappointed because I felt this was a case of Darkmoon Warrior plays black metal rather than playing to their full creative capabilities.

(6/10 Andrew Doherty)

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