ALBUM REVIEW: DET – Destructive Elite Terror

Having thoroughly enjoyed the demo tape DET sent me along with catching their brand of destructive elite terror live (a killer show) and since getting the LP with both demos on; I was hoping for a new release. Thankfully their debut album is coming soon, via Dying Victims Productions. So prepare for Finnish death-speed metal madness!

Ominous ambience begins our descent into underground mayhem, filling the air with anxiety. Maniacal riffing erupts into life with explosive drumming and a savage production that pushes the needle very close to the red. This noisy onslaught of instrumental barbarity is met by venomously snarled vocals which fit the whiplash riffing like a studded gauntlet. Combining elements of 80s thrash and speed with early death metal – the evil is cranked up to eleven with the chaos spiralling into overdriven ecstasy. In those first couple of tracks you can tell this record is going to be mental. It makes you want to start fires and smash stuff while pummelling you with obscure metallic danger from every angle while remembering to conjure a vicious and hellish atmosphere. We are starting strong and hopefully no quarter shall be given hereafter…

As hammering drums split tombstones and the lacerating guitar and bass onslaught rips flesh from corpse; we are treated to a veritable feast of malicious vocal to accompany the instruments. Everything feels like it was delivered with sadistic intentions and malice – something tangibly vitriolic about the trio and the way they unleash this songs. From the bestial and animalistic to moments one could call anthemic, I’ve never heard a band that gives me the same feelings as “Seven Churches” and “Metal Heart” but played in the style of “Evil Invaders”… and even that doesn’t quite cover what DET does entirely. Their torturous skullduggery is truly unique and yet draws influence from many archaic pools of metal that I favour. This record is unforgiving and demands your attention, constant headbanging and maybe some bloodied knuckles. So let us venture into its final moments and hope the ending is as explosive as the rest of it.

In a world where so many things feel sterile, weak, repetitive and sometimes like a mockery of former glories instead of a tribute; I am glad to hear a band like DET who bring that punishing sense of mayhem to a heavy metal record. Each track cracks a whip of chains and barbed wire across your back as they show no mercy on this relentless escapade of total evil. Flecks of black metal are cast across the landscapes of death-thrashing madness and prove once again that the band does not rest on their laurels for even a moment. Shrieked vocals sometimes break things up with a real thrashy feeling to them while things often have that feeling of when black, death, thrash, speed and heavy metal were not all such different things. This especially shows in the riffing which comfortably jumps from the likes of Exciter to Bathory to Morbid Angel without feeling jarring. Wearing their influences on their sleeves and then extending that arm into a striking punch on modern falsehoods; DET keep it true and cruel until the very end of this magnificent opus of elitist darkness. From the slower and more atmospheric to maximum overdriven artillery; not a precious moment is wasted or dull on this seriously wicked debut album.

Blowing the sepulchral grit off their strings and skins with insane magnitude, DET deliver “destructive elite terror” as promised. Their visceral blend of metallic emanations are both wild and memorable with each song fitting gloriously in its place as the album flows like molten steel. The rough production and ruthless playing gives a real sense of danger to the enchanting bestial attack on display and you will find yourself spellbound ’til the end as a result. A triumphant, malignant and totally barbaric cut of heavy metal that’ll rock you into an early grave with pounding evil. Supreme work!

For more reading, check out my interview with DET here!