Bestial Warlust - Vengeance War 'Till Death (1994)^{Release ID: 12963}

I am quite the fan of the short-lived Aussie war metallers, but with only two full-lengths to their name I wouldn't say they are my favourite war metal band. The more prolific Archgoat probably take that title, but Bestial Warlust did release my favourite war metal album, that being 1995's follow up to this month's The North feature, Blood & Valour, which is still my only five-star rated war metal album to date.

Vengeance War 'Till Death is a brief burst of blasphemic violence. With it's seven tracks clocking in at a mere 31 minutes it is an unrelenting salvo of blastbeats, frantically manic riffing and howling roars that is so murderously intense that half an hour is more than sufficient a runtime to satisfy the deeply primal instincts that live deep within us. Bestial Warlust must be one of the most aptly named bands in all of metal, their monicker perfectly summing up exactly what the band deliver. War metal is always a visceral and almost physical experience and few encapsulate this call to the animal side of us better than these guys. The production plays a massive part in the success of Vengeance... being filthily noisy and distorted enough to give it that seat-of-the-pants, chaotic sensation, whilst maintaining sufficient clarity to allow the individual contributions to be discerned and prevent the whole from descending into one godawful messy blur.

The drumming is a withering machine gun stream of blastbeat bullets that is testament to the indefatigable power of skinsman Markus Hellcunt and is prominent without swamping the guitars. The riffs are each distinct, which is not always true of many war metal releases whilst maintaining the supercharged and frantic pacing the genre requires. The solos screech like tormented souls, obviously having roots in the Slayer school of six-string torture, but taken to the absolute extremes where even Kerry King feared to tread. Bloodstorm spits fire and venom in a torrent of vitriolic howls and roars that encapsulates the sheer demonic evilness of war metal's blackened heart and leaves no one in any doubt as to which side of the "eternal struggle" tha band's music sits.

I am not going to pretend for one minute that this is going to appeal to most metalheads, I understand that war metal is an acquired taste, but for those who worship at the filth-strewn altar of extreme black and death metal, this is damn close to as good as it gets. In fact I have got so heavily into this album over the last day or two that I am going to up my otriginal four-star rating by half a mark.

As a diehard fan of the most extreme end of metal, there are often found to be releases that offer a lot of appeal to me that would no doubt have your average metalhead questioning my sanity. Where the music is so intense that it teeters on the edge of no longer being music & the experience is more about the undying worship of metal music in its purest form than it is about catchy hooks or memorable riffs. Legendary Melbourne war metal outfit Bestial Warlust are one such band for me. From the moment I first heard them on late-night metal radio shortly after the release of their 1994 debut album "Vengeance War 'Till Death", I knew that this was an artist that held a deep understanding of the rush I received from the most underground metal imaginable, a character trait that could only be earned through a dedicated background in the global tape trading scene. I very quickly picked up a dubbed copy of the album from one of my trading buddies & caned it for the remainder of that year, often returning to it in the future whenever I felt like indulging in the most extreme of the extreme. I was already aware of Bestial Warlust's precursor band Corpse Molestation through their 1992 "Descension of a Darker Deity" demo tape but I'd quickly see myself seeking out anything else I could find in that space too, resulting in a few more crudely recorded cassettes that I received universal enjoyment from. "Vengeance War 'Till Death" would go on to be highly influential in the global war metal scene, as would its follow-up in 1995's "Blood & Valour", so I count myself as being lucky to see Bestial Warlust play live a number of times during the middle of the 1990's. Their shows were always an experience, often being more about the concept than the music as their sound would regularly test the capabilities of your average venue's sound system & end up sounding like an immense wall of white noise. Still... each time I return to Bestial Warlust's debut album it takes me straight back to that wonderful period of musical discovery I undertook in my late teenage years.

Bestial Warlust's debut album was recorded at Studio 001 in Carlton, Melbourne in December 1993 & January 1994 with producer Scott Horne who wasn't anyone in particular when it comes to metal music. This is interesting because I'd imagine it would have been an incredible challenge for an extreme metal novice to reproduce this music in a palatable format on tape. I mean how would they even know where to start? But to Horne's credit, he's done a wonderful job of it here in harnessing the band's incredible violence & energy with the balance of riff intelligibility & white noise being just about perfect. Joe Skullfucker's guitar solos sound suitably over the top & the vocals of front man Damon Bloodstorm (Abominator) are unbelievably confronting & savage, taking the listener down into the very pits of Hades. Bestial Warlust's lineup was a little different to the one that had produced the three or four Corpse Molestation cassettes with drummer Marcus Hellcunt (Vomitor/Gospel of the Horns) having replaced Rick Zrna who had appeared on the last few demo tapes. Hellcunt produces one of the most relentless displays of blast beats you'll ever hear too, a trait that would go on to become one of Bestial Warlust's calling cards too.

Bestial Warlust's sound is the very epitome of the war metal subgenre, perhaps even being the most suitable point of reference when defining the term given that it's about as war metal as war metal gets. I mean, just listen to the classic intro to "Hammering Down the Law of the New Gods/Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse" & tell me that you can't picture the wolves all in a line at the top of a snow-covered hill, preparing for the onslaught that is about to ensue. And when those super-intense blast beats take off you can almost smell the bloodshed with Damon's vocals becoming the ring-leader for some of metal's most horrific slaughter scenes. In fact, I have to reiterate what a wonderful exponent of his craft Bloodstorm is actually because his vocals are just about the most evil thing I've ever heard in my life &, when combined with the psychotic Kerry King-on-speed guitar solos, I consistently find myself receiving maximum metal jollies. Much of the material on the album was drawn from the Corpse Molestation tapes with "At the Graveyard of God", "Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse", "Heathens" & "Dweller of the Bottomless Pit" all being known to fans of the underground before the band's change of moniker. The way they're presented here is spectacular though & shows clear evidence of a band that knows their sound well & are hellbent on shoving it down the global metal scenes throats in the form of a huge demonic goat phallus. As someone that values extreme metal as a concept & a lifestyle as much as I do a style of music, "Vengeance War 'Till Death" represents a clear celebration of everything that the tape trading scene stands for. It's as shocking as it is unapologetic, both characteristics that give this style of music an additional edge.

Look, I'm not saying that "Vengeance War 'Till Death" is the perfect metal album because it's not. There are a couple of tracks that are much less successful than the best material with both "Heathens" & "Storming Vengeance" being more acceptable than they are exceptional. The less impressive moments generally come when the riffs don't coalesce as well with the drumming, seeing things descending into the chaos that this band tend to flirt with. But when Bestial Warlust get things right there are few exponents of the war metal sound that can match them. Just check out album highlights like "Bestial Warlust", "Hammering Down the Law of the New Gods/Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse" or "At the Graveyard of God" (one of the greatest achievements in extreme metal ever put to tape & the best closer ever for this genre in my opinion) for examples of what this niche sound can achieve if it's placed in the right hands. Many people are probably unaware of this but the Australian scene has been just as influential on the creation & subsequent direction of the global war metal scene as any other location in the world. Those lucky enough to be in the know will tell you that our signature sound is a chaotic blending of the death metal, black metal & thrash metal with a clear understanding of how to produce that with maximum underground credibility. Bestial Warlust is the result of these young dudes having been raised in that scene with the influence of local bands like Sadistik Exekution, Martire & Slaughter Lord being as clear as that of Canadian war metal godfathers Blasphemy.

"Vengeance War 'Till Death" should be essential listening for fans of the war metal genre. It's really that important a record in what followed. I'm thankful that I've been able to separate the fact that I harbour a deep dislike for guitarist K.K. Warslut from my enjoyment of this record following a drunken night out with Deströyer 666 some time in the mid-90's as it would have been a real shame to allow that to tarnish what is essentially of pinnacle of Australian extreme metal. The highlights may carry this album but they're so unanimous in their ability to break down my defenses that I have no alternative but to give in to the demonic assault that is thrust at me with unmatched barbarity.

For fans of Sadistik Exekution, Blasphemy & Conqueror.