Wide-eyed confusion and general bewilderment are the most common reactions after laying eyes upon Las Vegas act Spiritworld for the first time. Slayer in Stetsons is usually the next. Yes, the unlikely looking Nevadans might look like the founder members of a Billy Ray Cyrus and Garth Brooks cosplay fan club but their music is a very different beast indeed.
Certainly not the first band to use shiny clothes to hook an audience, usually, once the initial surprise has worn off, the actual meat and potatoes of the music itself is often unappetising, reheated stodge. And while it’s instantly and abundantly clear where Spiritworld’s influences lie, the band’s second full length studio album Deathwestern (Century Media) ventures beneath the surface aesthetic and into much more creative depths.
After the opening spaghetti western atmospherics of intro ‘Mojave Bloodlust’, the deluge of hardcore, death metal and Slayer riffs begins in earnest with the brutal title track. Vocalist Stu Folsom roars and bellows alongside a pounding rhythm section and dive-bombing guitar solos straight from the fretboards of Messrs Hanneman and King before ‘Relic of Damnation’ quickly turns a mid-paced groove into something more violent. Next up, the cunningly titled ‘Purafied in Violence’ (the record was produced and mixed by studio engineer Sam Pura) blasts away any remaining cobwebs while ‘Ulcer’ and ‘Committee of Buzzards’ deliver bursts of classic thrash with massive hardcore breakdowns and a crushing Pantera groove.
‘The Heretic Butcher’ continues the pummelling after a playful intro while ‘Moonlit Torture’ features a guest vocal appearance from Integrity frontman Dwid Hellion and sounds like Slayer and Ride the Lightning era Metallica getting drunk with Hatebreed. ‘Crucified Heathen Scum’ is every bit as subtle as it sounds before the album closes with the double fuck you of ‘Lujuria Satanica’ and ‘1000 Deaths’.
The perfect combination of old school thrash, groove, death metal and hardcore, Deathwestern is easily the best soundtrack never written by Ennio Morricone to the best Satanic spaghetti western never directed by Sergio Leone. Hail Satan. And cowboy hats.
Buy the album here:
https://spiritworldprophet.com/
9 / 10
GARY ALCOCK