Krisiun – Scourge Of The Enthroned album review

The last time we heard from this Brazilian powerhouse, they seemed to be experiencing something of a mid-career crisis. Krisiun have always been a band you can rely on for ultra-tight, lightning-fast death metal, but 2015’s hour-long Forged In Fury found the trio dropping the pace and experimenting with slower, chuggier passages. It wasn’t a bad record by any means, just a strangely uninspiring one given what the band were capable of.

For their latest, however, Krisiun have returned to their roots and treated us to half an hour of feral, no-nonsense death metal. The opening title track may kick things off with a cumbersome, deliciously doom-laden slow section, but it isn’t long before the trio blast into overdrive, hitting a furious tempo that they maintain for the rest of the record. Demonic Three may as well be a description of the band itself, and with its relentless blasts, crunchy, razor-sharp guitar sound and wailing Slayer-esque solos, it’s a perfect encapsulation of their sound and a firm reminder of what made this band so great in the first place – there’s even a cheeky nod to debut Black Force Domain here for the diehards.

Make no mistake, though: this isn’t the sound of a band merely trying to recapture former glories. Having kept the same line-up for close to three decades, Krisiun have arguably never sounded tighter, striking with ruthless precision on songs like Electricide whilst riding convulsing, off-kilter rhythms that would surely sound awkward in the hands of a lesser act.

Scourge Of The Enthroned probably won’t topple fan-favourite Conquerors Of Armageddon as the ultimate Krisiun album, but it’s easily their most exhilarating and brutal opus since 2008’s Southern Storm and serves as a gleefully extended middle finger to any fairweather fans who were willing to put them out to pasture after the last record. Welcome back, lads!