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TOTAL ANNIHILATION “Mountains of Madness”
TOTAL ANNIHILATION “Mountains of Madness”
By Theron Moore
Swiss death-thrashers TOTAL ANNIHILATION released their latest and greatest record ‘Mountains of Madness’ January 16 via Testimony Records. Although the band is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year “Mountains Of Madness” is just their fourth LP to date. I know, right? As you might guess, this record is chock full of songs celebrating monsters, madness, tentacles, and other creepy shit that goes bump and grind in the night. Is the record worthy of a lofty Lovecraftian title such as Mountains Of Madness or is it just a stinking pile of shambling poo?
The disc opens with “The Art Of Torture” which right off the bat sets the tone for what lies ahead – pure, unrelenting, circle pit destruction. The second song, the title track to this platter of pure mayhem, is a frenetic, crazed piece of heavy metal worship. For me personally, if the first two tracks of a record are killer, the rest is pretty much a given, and by God that’s the case with “Mountains Of Madness”. This thing just steam rolls right over you. The guitars are razor sharp, the bass & drums sound like harbingers of impending doom, and the vocals are a fat axe to the face.
I dig “Mountains of Madness” a lot because it’s not your standard cut and paste. “let’s do CANNIBAL CORPSE” nonsense. Every song on this record is heavy, punishing, tight, and thought out to ear fuck you in the most uncomfortable way, and that’s how I want my death metal. Fuck melodic, fuck technical, just keep it raw and primal. Songs like “Choose The Day,” “The Art Of Torture,” and “Beneath The Cross” shock me in the sense that, why isn’t every fan of death metal talking about how great TOTAL ANNIHILATION is?
Whatever the case may be, I hope to hear more from this band in the future. I can’t talk enough about how incredible this record is and how TOTAL ANNIHILATION is now top five in my favorite death metal band list. Buy this record, steal this record, stream this record, but listen to it, it’ll redefine what this genre means to you.
4/5 Stars
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