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PERVERSION
Dies Irae

Hells Headbangers (2022)
Rating: 8/10

Nine years ago these hazardous Detroit, Michigan-based mutants released their debut opus Storm Of Evil, and the chaos resumes here for the dastardly trio with their long-awaited second full-length.

There’s always been a strong South American vibe to Perversion, with the hammering percussion of former Nuke man Pete Gibbs, Alan Hoover’s belligerent bass, and the seething axe and vocal work of Fernando Conde. Think of, for example, old Sepultura, Vulcano and that despicable first wave of black metal that singed the ears with its sooty death / thrash nastiness.

The cover rendition of Bathory’s ‘Possessed’ is expectedly vicious, but what I really like about Perversion is the obscureness and the equally primitive segments where the band opts for mid-tempo menace as shown on the superb ‘Bhagavad Genocide’. This track brims with a doominess towards its close and then melts the face with a wild thrash aesthetic. Such menace is exuded again with ‘Axioms Of Domination’ which begins with such a hideous chugging.

I’m a huge fan of the vocals which come across as distant slurs that act as chilly gusts to combat the remote yet slick visions of a track like ‘Unveiling The Primordial Revelation’ which features a trickle of Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) before puncturing the veil with its fluid yet sinister angles.

These guys don’t display a bewildering set of styles or skills, it’s just that everything they do conjure is coated in an overwhelming darkness. Whether it’s the wicked surge of ‘Migration Into Darkness’ with its vintage Slayer-cum-Sextrash evilness, or the straight-up sniping chaos of ‘Decapitator’, one can literally smell the vile concoction of black leather jackets, beer and midnight!

Dies Irae thrashes hard and fast, is streaked with blackened mayhem but overwhelms with its cloak of doom, providing then the perfect soundtrack for witching hours spent within the confines of the pentagram.

Neil Arnold

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