PLAGUE YEARS
Circle Of Darkness
EONE
Dank, dirty and desolate death/thrash from Detroit
Following Plague Years’ rip-roaring 2018 debut LP, Unholy Infestation, this second offering may not be quite as frantic but has a heftier, meaner sound, as the band plough through chuggier and more crushing death/thrash riffage, à la Beneath The Remains-era Sepultura or a deathlier Power Trip. There’s still a lot of hardcore influence, though, not least thanks to Tim Englehardt’s burly grunt, which sounds like Jamey Jasta doing his best John Tardy impression with a severely bunged-up nose. There are still suitably speedy cuts like the galloping buzzsaw attack of Witness Hell, but Eternal Fire slows down to an irresistibly primitive, crunchy stomp, while Paradox Of Death introduces some eerie South Of Heaven-esque atmospherics. Solid.