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SERUM DREG
Lustful Vengeance

Vrasubatlat / Invictus Productions (2018)
Rating: 7/10

Serum Dreg’s unholy debut opus features six ear-shredding heaps of satanic junk that emerge three years after 2015’s cult Impure Blood demo. Such a cacophony is the construction of demonic warlord’s Ad Infinitum (vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards) and Conjure Of Plague (vocals, drums).

This fiendish brotherhood from Portland, Oregon began life in 2013 and produce a wretched, vile cauldron of rank deathly noise based grim blackened thrash outburst of utmost blasphemy. We’ve heard similar rantings before from numerous acts since the genre exploded in the 80s, whether in the form of obscure Brazilian death-thrash, all the way to European holocaustic metal. Y’know the sort, Bathory-inspired mayhem mixed with frenzied Satanism and scratchy vocal mocking.

With Lustful Vengeance we find ourselves wrapped up in what at times is an almost amateurish hammering created in some dungeon (or teenager’s bedroom). Hell, if this had come out a few years ago we’d have probably all laughed having heard so much of it before. The vocals at times just seem out of place, especially the mocking smirks of laugher on ‘Death Ritual’, but throughout this opus the riffs are catchy, oily and underground. Tracks such as ‘Edifice Of Hatred’ and the laughably titled ‘Blasphemic Black Death Noise’ do exactly what you’d expect; flail wildly over an overdose of thrashing limbs and grainy yet contagious diseased clattering, and all delivered with thrashing naïve menace.

It’s not the 80s anymore, in fact it’s not the black metal infatuated 90s either, but fair pay to bands such as Serum Dreg for continuing to cough up that black ‘n’ roll attitude littered with windy howls of vocal fury and a guitar sound that reminds one of a rehearsal tape.

‘Holy Disease’ is standard fare when it comes to blackened thrashing, but through the mayhem nice tempo changes are applied, giving the opus a nifty, slick feel. Meanwhile, opener ‘Rotten Pillar / Lustful Vengeance’ begins with nice military-styled percussion and dark, occult atmosphere before transforming into a hideous burp of chugging, distortion and nasty punk aggression. It’s my favourite track on the opus with that ratty chug and those Quorthon-esque slurps of unholy delight. The track also showcases the band’s ability to roam from that edgy yet suspenseful traipse before entering speedier climes.

It’s a shame that Lustful Vengeance is so short at only a hair’s breadth over 22-minutes, but for a descent into hellish, garbled but above all catchy dank black-death-thrash, then why not give this hateful thing a try.

Neil Arnold

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