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RAMPANY BEAST
Into The Infernal Pyre

Blood Coloured Beast (2024)
Rating: 7.5/10

I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed an album by an Armenian heavy metal band before, but I’m glad this one came to my attention. Rampant Beast is a blackened speed metal combo which started out in 2019 under the moniker Intoxicated, who were more of a deathly act until the name change.

With Into The Infernal Pyre the listener gets whipped up into a spiteful and satanic whirlwind of early Teutonic sneering and Bathory blackness; quite the cauldron then of dark, fizzing metal with zipping oil slick streaks of blasphemy. There’s no real surprises, just snappy and concise unholiness that prompts you to crack open the beers and draw a pentagram on the floor.

Some of the wild solos and general structuring boast a strong 80s feel, particularly ‘Extreme Aggression’, which is a standout alongside the scathing zip of ‘Acid Vomit’, and the sinister stirring of closer ‘Lurking Evil’. Admittedly, most of the tracks follow a theme whereby you get the enticing, simmering opening before the stormy gallop, which can be said of so much black thrash. In fact, it’s almost as if Satan’s phantom carriage has unleashed its fiery black stallions.

I really do like the traditional flecks this album offers though. ‘Dragged Into Hellfire’ features a slick melody straight from the British songwriting style of Satan himself circa 1982, while ‘Shrine Of The Witch’ is somewhat ghastlier in its premise via the classic Venom, Bathory and old Slayer. Lucifer himself is salivating over such sacrificial splendour.

Neil Arnold

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