Plaguemace releases their debut album.
After a debut EP in 2020, the year of its formation, the Danish band comprising Andreas Truelsen (vocals, Bound Hands), Anton Holm (guitar), Simon Truelsen (guitar), Ruben Brandt (bass) and Matias Zacho (drums) signs with the Napalm Records label and announce the release of Reptilian Warlords for 2023.
The album opens with the heavy rhythm of Cannibalicious, which immediately shows its catchy Old School roots complemented by raw vocal parts. The track is fairly short, but carries us through to Impenetrable Leather, where riffs accelerate while adopting sharp harmonics, especially on the slightly quieter choruses, but which quickly bring us back into the tornado. The vocalist lashes out before the final acceleration, which leads to Cavedweller’s Soliloquy, a 30-second interlude where the singer growls at us before Rhythmic Demise develops a slow and weighing sound. The track remains highly effective from start to finish, ensuring that the band can easily untie necks live, before Warcries From The Crypt offers us another moment of respite with its disturbing martial music. The album title is chanted before Among The Filth Final brings dissonant guitars back, eventually complemented by devastating drums and wild screams. Death/Doom influences can be heard in some of the more haunting passages, where oppressive heaviness reigns, then it’s with livelier riffs that the track comes to a close, giving way to Reptilian Warlords, the eponymous track, and its obvious Heavy influences that make the riffs highly motivating. The energetic spikes the band injects perfectly punctuate the track before letting Misantropical Breed follow with a relatively similar approach, letting drums guide the movement while the vocalist places his hoarse howls. Ambrosia then unveils itself, starting with a gentle but ominous melody that eventually recovers its saturation as well as the usual vocal parts, but it’s with the sudden acceleration that it shows all its power, letting the band literally roll over us. After more than eight minutes and an upbeat final, it’s with Carnivore Massacre that the musicians stomp us one last time, skilfully coupling their heady riffs with solid drums topped by the vocals.
Plaguemace may be a young band, but they know how to assert themselves on the Death Metal scene with a polished sound. Reptilian Warlords isn’t just another Old School riff album, it’s part of the history of violence.
85/100