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ANIALATOR
Death Is Calling

Xtreem Music (2024)
Rating: 7/10

Now here’s a blast from the past as Texan cult thrashers Anialator emerge once again from the underground and finally hit us with a debut full-length album since forming in the mid-80s.

I was introduced to these guys via their 1988 self-titled EP which was issued by Wild Rags Records. Much has changed since then but it’s great that Anialator, like many seemingly defunct 80s acts, has resurfaced, albeit with only one original member in the form of bassist Alex Dominguez who owns the band name. But let’s forget the past and move to the now and Death Is Calling, a 33 minute hammering dressed in a generic and god-awful slice of album art, although don’t let such computer generated tomfoolery put you off.

Death Is Calling hits very hard from the off, a savage tirade of riffs and drums are skin to an avalanche as ‘Kill Till Death’ produces some Anthrax-styled chugs, melodious leads and vicious vocal chops. The aggression has obviously never left Anialator as ‘Memories Of Death’ scuttles with ferocity amid the rattling bass and punchy drums.

As the album unravels the vocals become nastier, bordering on thrashing death slurs, and while I’m impressed by the injections of melody throughout, the speedier moments are just pure unrelenting savagery. ‘Hear The Death Call’ hits you like a blizzard even with its timely injected chugs, and the same goes for the rawer snipes of ‘Relentless’.

Elsewhere, ‘Iron Grinder’ is the ideal exhibition of a fusing of mid-paced riffage and bursts of speed, while ‘Terror Tactics’ is a pummelling closer of epic proportions, and although Anialator in 2024 is very much a more fine-tuned entity, the art of its butchery has never left its coils.

Neil Arnold

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