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NUNSLAUGHTER / WITCHTRAP
Split EP

Hells Headbangers (2014)
Rating: 7/10

I’ve literally lost track of the amount of split projects Nunslaughter has been involved in, but the latest spout of mayhem – with Colombian demons Witchtrap as company – is already the second split this year for the US death metallers (having teamed up with Chile’s Perversor earlier in 2014).

Anyway, here we get four tracks – two by each band – and as expected, they are all expressions of mayhem.

Nunsluaghter deliver their brace in the usual barbaric fashion, opening with the hostile ‘La Ofrenda’ which mixes blasphemous speed with slower segments of satanic, phlegm-coated doom. Their second track, ‘Altar De La Muerta’, is equally offensive and sneering, but a great deal shorter, existing as some frantic act of total destruction billowing black smoke and coughing up rust in its quest for annihilation. Sure, we always know what’s coming with these guys but we keep coming back for the battering.

Next up is Witchtrap, who aren’t as experienced as the prolific Nunslaughter, having only released three full-length albums, a handful of splits, a brace of demos and a trio of EPs. Compared to most other acts this makes them veterans given the fact they were born in 1992, but career-wise and sound-wise they pale in comparison to Nunslaughter.

Their brand of speedy thrash is very much in that satanic 80s style, approaching a blackened blend of blasphemous steel and toxic gallop. Vocalist Burning Axe Ripper has a dry, no frills style, but I cannot argue with the primitive yet instantly memorable ‘Sex Commander’ which sounds as if it’s been dredged from the extreme metal underground circa 1986, such it its reckless quality. Meanwhile, ‘The Devil’s On The Loose’ is equally foetid, beginning in sinister fashion with those doom-laden guitar strains and tumbling drums of melancholy before the band lurches into more feverish chaos; spitting venom amid a tirade of dry, sonic guitar whips and lashing percussion that’ll transport you back to a time when this sort of thing was our bread and butter.

Although Witchtrap lacks the weight to compete with Nunslaughter in the ring, this project is still a nifty addition for any collector of such singles. For Nunslaughter, it’s merely another addition to that impressive back catalogue of butchery.

For those interested in purchasing this four-track assault, prepare to be whipped by a project that exhibits the contrasting aspects of old school extreme metal.

Neil Arnold

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