Slaughterday – Nightmare Vortex

Review by Paul Castles

FDA Rekotz

If you think that a band named Slaughterday come across as some kind of savage goredipped meatheads then it’s fair to say that your proximity to the truth is pretty darn close. The opening guttural growl ignites Nightmare Vortex within the first couple of seconds and the ferocity never really mellows throughout this hard-hitting eight-track full length debut release. Nightmare Vortex is an intimidating enough title but it scarcely does justice to the barbaric blast that these Teutonic tormentors successfully sustain during 39 minutes of unbridled aggression. This is demonstrative death metal that even someone strapped to a table waiting for the needle of death would find it impossible not to wriggle and nod their head to its relentless renegade riffs.

Opening number ‘Unearthly Evocation’ goes off like a volcano eager to spew its burning lava having lain dormant for far too long. It’s a barrage of all out destruction but the subtle touches lay just beneath the surface as these German newcomers show they have the necessary qualities to climb over one or two of their less inspired contemporaries. Next up is the album’s title track, the shortest of the lot, but no less infectious, bristling like a seeping scab with the devil’s lovejuice. A whining spiraling rhythm cuts through the air before it falls flat on its face into a masterful mammoth stomp that will have your legs shaking like a 16-year-old on his first trip to a lapdancing club. ‘Addicted to the Grave’ has a slower raspier feel but if anything is even more compelling with Uli Kreienbrink’s grating vocals sounding as though they’ve been crafted within the corridors of hell.

Slaughterday can thrash their way through a track when the mood takes them but this is nothing more than death metal at something close to its best, switching from full throttle terror to thudding ground-shaking tremors. Fans of death metal forefathers Autopsy should find plenty to sink their teeth into here and with tracks such as ‘Cult of the Dreaming Dead’ it’s reasonable to suspect that the American hardcore legends were major influences on Slaughterday. The German crew sign off from what will hopefully be the first of many albums with ‘Cryptic Desolation’ another solid slam-against-the-wall untamed beast with full on death metal blasts interspersed with some captivating riff webs from which it’s almost impossible to free yourself.

Nightmare Vortex is released on FDA and this German label has already left us with some gems over the past year or so from the likes of Deserted Fear and Revel in Flesh. They’ve got another good one here in Slaughterday.

8 out of 10

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Track listing:

1. Unearthly Evocation
2. Nightmare Vortex
3. Addicted To The Grave
4. Cosmic Horror
5. Morbid Shroud Of Sickness
6. Cult Of The Dreaming Dead
7. Obsessed With The Undead
8. Cryptic Desolation