This is the debut album from French death metal band Balance of Terror.
Balance of Terror play brutal death metal with lashings of grindcore thrown in to really help them make a mess.
Although the first track – Intro – is unimaginatively titled, it’s still an actual song, and not just a pointless waste of time like most album intro tracks, which are largely just there to annoy the listener with crap samples or pointless filler-music. Instead, here Balance of Terror use the track to show off what they can do with some meaty riffs right from the start.
After this, we’re into the album proper with Gap blowing the cobwebs off things with its high-energy death metal assault. Blast beats, heavy riffs, and a bit of the modern pignoise extremity is what we’ve got going on here, alongside some of the aforementioned grindcore savagery.
The mix of old and new inlfuences on this album works a treat, and the songs batter, bruise, tear, and destroy in all of the right ways that you’d hope for from an album like this. The band have an ear for a good riff and seem to know what they’re doing with a fast beat.
I enjoyed this. For a fast and brutal hit of streamlined extremity, this is 30 minutes that hits the spot nicely.
Recommended.
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