For reasons best known to themselves, some bands deliberately go out of their way to disguise their influences and inspirations. Feral are not some bands. One listen to To Usurp the Thrones (Transcending Obscurity Records) and everything is perfectly clear.

Formed in 2007, the Swedish deathsters fourth full-length studio release boasts a dirty production and a frankly filthy guitar tone of which Entombed would be proud. The Vocals wouldn’t be out of place on an Autopsy record and the riffs should rightfully belong to the likes of Bloodbath. Even the cover art comes courtesy of Costin Chioreanu, the Romanian artist whose credits include the likes of Arch Enemy, Grave, and At The Gates among many, many others.

Right from the savage, high-octane opener “To Drain the World of Light,” vocalist David Nilsson sounds like he’s in the process of regurgitating his kidneys as guitarists Markus Lindahl and Sebastian Lejon deliver a blur of speed and chunky grooves while also exhibiting a real ear for melodic, bluesy soloing “Vile Malediction” slows things down to a sludgy crawl before piling on the speed, drummer Roger Markström driving the song forward as the riffs keep coming. “Deformed Mentality” is up next, opening with a brief excerpt from 2000 comedy/horror/satire American Psycho before erupting into a flurry of demented and unrestrained insanity, the song achieving actual lift-off around the halfway mark.

“Bound to the Dead” is all about Nilsson again as he opens with an anguished roar and then spends the rest of the song sounding like someone who lists swallowing broken glass among their favourite hobbies. “The Devouring Storm” is another sludge-filled pit of doom riffs that explodes with bursts of speed yet still allows bassist Viktor Klingstedt room to manoeuvre before being obliterated by the blizzard of spiteful energy that is “Spirits Without Rest.”

Titles like “Decimated,” “Soaked in Blood” and venomous closer “Stripped of Flesh” leave absolutely nothing to the imagination while “Phantoms of Antiquity” possesses a groove capable of snapping vertebrae from a hundred feet, and “Into the Ashes of History” unleashes six and a half minutes of pummelling aggression and groove.

Articulate guitar solos, well-crafted songs, gruelling rhythms, and riffs heavier than a sack of mammoths. To Usurp the Thrones is the sick and twisted offspring of Autopsy and Entombed and sounds hideous in all the best ways.

Buy the album here:
https://feralsweden.bandcamp.com/album/to-usurp-the-thrones

8 / 10
GARY ALCOCK