TERMINAL NATION
TERMINAL NATION "Echoes Of the Devil's Den"
By Dr. Abner Mality
Make no mistake, this will be in my Top 10 this year for sure. Damn, these guys throw down HARD! Take a look at the awesome flaming skeleton monster on the rampage on the cover...this record sounds the way that monster looks!
Now imagine the pure Swedish chainsaw of DISMEMBER and GRAVE, hitch that sound to the metallic hardcore pummeling of RINGWORM and ALL OUT WAR, then toss in some tasty guitar licks and fills of more "normal" metal. Top it off with sick screams and growls and the kind of blistering leftist anger that NAPALM DEATH once had. That describes the TERMINAL NATION experience pretty succinctly, although words really can't do this sonic violence justice.
Despite the relentless tsunami of heaviness, songcraft is not ignored. Tunes like "Empire In Decay", "Release The Serpents" and instrumental "Embers of Humanity": have surprising depth to them, although one hesitates to use the word "melody" here. There's also a lot of rampant hardcore breakdowns sprinkled throughout, some of which have almost HATEBREED accessibility but tethered to REAL anger. The kind of anger that you know is real, not just going through "angry man" motions. That, too, helps to separate TERMINAL NATION from the pack.
I sure hope this breaks out to the level of a FROZEN SOUL or SKELETAL REMAINS. It made me sweat and shake just listening to this.