Three years have passed for Thanatomass.
Yet A. Thanatos (guitar/vocals), TLG (bass, Blackwinged), and V. Scorn (drums, ex-Ark of Passage, ex-Catharsis) haven’t been sitting idle: they present their new EP, The Rabid Dead, with the support of Nomad Snakepit Productions.
The title track The Rabid Dead hits us at full speed, unleashing frenzied riffs with insane ferocity while the vocalist bellows in the background, occasionally giving way to a shrill guitar over a powerful blend of Black and Death Metal. The band leaves us virtually no breathing room, chaining together the song’s various sections with fury despite a few slightly slower but no less chaotic passages before moving on to Flesh Catafalque & the Covenant Semen, a track with a slightly calmer introduction that doesn’t take long to erupt into chaos of its own. The machine kicks back into gear on its own just as the rhythm seems to subside, but the composition is relatively short, passing the torch after less than three minutes to the very long From Vein into Chalice, which unleashes its chaos across ten minutes of waves of darkness that follow one another in pure violence, creating oppressive passages, others more jagged and even surprising, such as the rather melodious moment before the fury resumes until the very end.
The Rabid Death is the perfect way for Thanatomass to remind us of their uncompromising violence while keeping us waiting. No mercy, no respite, just ultra-effective and suffocating riffs.
90/100
