THRONEUM "The Tight Deathrope Act Over Rubicon" [CD]

By now, THRONEUM should need no introduction. For over 20 years now, this Polish death metal cult has been a staunch and steadfast pillar of none-more-true, dyed-in-the-wool DEATH METAL, played by death metal maniacs for death metal maniacs. Their catalog is vast if not varied; they still continue to engage in split releases, as has been the underground way for decades. At every turn, THRONEUM are raw, ugly, and morbidly hideous in their expression - always dependable, never faltering - and forever committed to their gods of '80s and early '90s Metal of Death. As they've proclaimed in the past, "If you aren't into Necrovore, Sadistik Exekution, Mortem, Order From Chaos, Imperator, Asphyx, Mayhem, and Merciless - keep away from THRONEUM! That's pure Total Death!"

Indeed, THRONEUM proved that with their first album for HELLS HEADBANGERS (and seventh overall), 2016's Morbid Death Tales. A mighty and more-than-worthy introduction to the band's signature style of rabid, righteous filth, Morbid Death Tales was the perfect culmination of everything that's brewed in THRONEUM's cauldron to date. However, with the brand-new HELLS HEADBANGERS album The Tight Deathrope Act Over Rubicon, there's far more nightmarish ingredients brewing in that cauldron. They may've downplayed their originality in the past - in fact, they boldly proclaimed the credo of "no originality, no own style, no musical progress" - but as suggested even by its tongue-twisting title, The Tight Deathrope Act Over Rubicon portrays a newer and nastier THRONEUM.

Between bouts of frothing-mad hysteria and knife-cutting tension, dungeon-deep rumbling and mentally unstable thrashing, The Tight Deathrope Act Over Rubicon covers a relatively vast landscape of wrecked 'n' wrecking decibels during its hour-long duration. Whereas so much death metal past and especially present sounds so safe and normal, THRONEUM here sound absolutely unhinged and frankly fucking dangerous. There aren't so much "riffs" on the album as there are howling spirits being malformed in an unknown dimension. Songwriting restlessly shifts and mutates, but seemingly is on a narrow-yet-serpentine path down where no light reaches. Production is suitably rough yet reverberating, diseased tones that emit both muscle and mildew. Everything sounds so OLD, yet its presentation is remarkably fresh. In the band's own words, it's "necro psychodelic," and undoubtedly THRONEUM's most mature recording ever. The album also very nearly killed them.

You may know THRONEUM, but The Tight Deathrope Act Over Rubicon is THE album where they get weird and go really over the top. They worked with a lot of new elements - Ophthalamia, Molested, old Therion, Abruptum, Carbonized, and Mekong Delta among them - and managed to mangle them into something truly unique and totally fucking nightmarish. No originality? No way! Let THRONEUM guide you on The Tight Deathrope Act Over Rubicon...