RSS Feed


BLOOD RAGE
Welcome To Crimson Pines EP

Cavernous / Frozen Screams Imprint (2022)
Rating: 8/10

Just when you thought it was safe, the UK produces another mighty fine death metal act, this time from Wales… sort of.

Blood Rage is the brainchild of Crypt Rot and Maimed guitarist Tom Hughes. He is joined by drummer Ryan Willis who has featured for Seven Doors, Born Undead and Wolves In Exile, while the vocals are handled by Romanian dude Filip Garlonta who even at such a young age has worked with Demoted, Necrotum, Vorus and Putred among others.

It’s no real shock to the system then that this debut EP, armed with bloody cover art and obsessed with horror lyrically, is anything short of excellent. Two of the tracks (‘Blood’ and ‘Rage’), which will benefit the cassette freaks out there, are short one-minute intros, so essentially you get six songs; ‘Lured Into The Trap’, ‘He Came Back’, ‘Chainsaw Castration’, ‘Skewered With A Tent Stake’, ‘Campfire Immolation’ and ‘Welcome To Crimson Pines’. All of these are chunky, filth-coated juggernauts bolstered even further by the utterly disgusting and chesty vocal coughs which leave a lasting stain as if pools of blood have congealed on your speakers.

The first thing I hear when ‘Lured Into The Trap’ kicks in is the Mortician influence. Even when these guys attempt rapid, violent expressions it’s still a thickening gloop of flabby axe work that flows like a dense river of sick.

This is heavyweight death metal that churns and oozes without ever veering into the cumbersome death / doom darkness. Instead, we get the catchy slop of ‘He Came Back’ which features Maimed frontman Kyle Messick on bestial burps, as well as some nifty synth work too on those intros which harkens back to the days of 80s horror.

While extremely simplistic in design, Welcome To Crimson Pines is a wonderfully engaging release littered with horror movies samples and matched equally by its squalid gnashing as ‘Chainsaw Castration’ comes oozing through the vents like putrid slime from some otherworldly fungal entity.

I adore death metal that drips with 80s nostalgia and trundles with menace, so Blood Rage has ticked all the boxes with the fetid labours of ‘Skewered With A Tent Stake’ and the manky marauding of the title track. This is the sort of release that clogs drains, rattles brains but most importantly puts hideous white mould on your precious VHS tapes, but all in the name of death metal nostalgia and utmost horror.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share