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PROTECTOR
Excessive Outburst Of Depravity

High Roller (2022)
Rating: 9/10

Arguably better than fellow countrymen Tankard, it was surely Protector that should’ve been considered as part of the Teutonic “Big Four” alongside Kreator, Sodom and Destruction, and those three titans could’ve learnt a lot from these guys. With both Sodom and Destruction becoming a tad generic with their releases and Kreator succumbing to a commercial melodious streak, Protector just kept on snapping away with their aggressive thrash, and their 2013 opus Reanimated Homunculus remains one of the best thrash albums ever.

Excessive Outbursts Of Depravity is the eighth full-length studio release from this underrated combo and their sound remains a sonic source force of ripping savagery of the highest order. Vocalist and original member Martin Missy is still at the helm driving the outfit forward with dry, hostile yells, the band unleashing a tirade of volatile tunes such as the rampant fury of opener ‘Last Stand Hill’, the slaying speed of ‘Infinite Tyranny’ and the belligerent horror of ‘Cleithrophobia’ with its machine gun percussion.

This was always going to be tight yet lethal thrash metal, spitting venom and spiky in nature. Mathias Johansson’s bass is a destructive entity, rattling furiously through the chaotic storm of Michael Carlsson’s axe work.

It’s not regressive or progressive, Protector simply exists in its moment, almost spontaneous in its primal wrecking. The likes of Sadus and Razor have ploughed similar unwavering furrows, frantically propelling themselves into a speedy stratosphere constructed of angular dynamics and thorny frameworks.

Maybe due to the band’s ability to simply thrash hard and fast has not always worked in their favour, but one cannot argue with the formula created to drive home the likes of ‘Pandemic Misery’ with its swirling rapids of riffery, and the cutting, churning ‘Toiling In Sheol’. It is only ‘Thirty Years Of Perdition’ which affords some sort of mid paced accessibility, but overall this is the Protector we know and love that doesn’t require any “Big Four” entitlement because this latest album literally lays waste to the competition.

Neil Arnold

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