(Andy Synn enters the devil’s den that is the new album from Terminal Nation, out next week)
As someone whose first serious foray into “alternative” music involved getting seriously into Hardcore, I’ve been loving a lot of the new wave of Death Metal/Hardcore crossover acts.
Sure, there’s a few bands out there who’ve definitely taken the trend as an opportunity to play down to the worst aspects of the two genres (and the less said about them the better, in my opinion, as they’ve already gotten enough hype for their lazy, lowest-common-denominator bullshit) but the likes of Tribal Gaze, Xibalba Slowbleed, and Fuming Mouth have all made a big impression on me over the last few years.
And then, of course, there’s Terminal Nation, whose previous album (and subsequent split EP with Kruelty) I was a big fan of, and who are now set to make even more waves with Echoes of the Devil’s Den.
Right from the start you can see, hear, and feel the differences – some subtle, some more overt – between this album and its predecessor, as the group have clearly leaned even harder into the Death Metal influenced, Obituary-inspired, side of their sound, picking up where songs like “Orange Bottle Prison” and “Curators of Brutality” left off with their increased emphasis on gut-churning, down-tuned chuggery and brutish, buzz-saw riffery.
As a result of this the songs have also, by necessity, grown a little bit longer than those which made up the band’s debut, which in turn gives the group a little more space to stretch their creative wings, especially when it comes to the increased use of melody (something which they’d already hinted at on previous releases, but never quite to this extent) as a counterpoint to all the crushing heaviness and visceral, venomous invective spewed by formidable frontman Stan Liszewski.
There is, however, a slightly downside to this approach, which is that Echoes… does tend to stick, over the vast majority of its forty-minute run-time, to one dominant pace, which is especially noticeable during its first few tracks, whose bulldozing momentum definitely delivers all the power you’d expect but does also threaten to become a little bit predictable as things go on.
That’s not to say these aren’t good songs – “Written By The Victor” is a nasty piece of work, make no mistake, and I’m a big fan of the way the band skewer the cruelties of hostile architecture and the criminalisation of the homeless on “The Spikes Under the Bridge” – but it’s not until the middle section of the album, beginning with the in-your-face, take-no-prisoners attack of “No Reform (New Age Slave Patrol” and ending with the gargantuan grooves of “Dying Alive”, that Echoes… truly capitalises on Terminal Nation‘s growth as a band (while also hinting at further potential for even more growth down the line).
It’s not just that the aforementioned two tracks hit that little bit harder, focussing their fury even more tightly then ever, it’s that the humongous hooks and darkly melodic touches of “Empire in Decay” flow seamlessly into the intricate instrumental strains of the majestic “Embers of Humanity”, suggesting that the two should be taken together as a single epic composition, and that outstanding album highlight “Merchants of Bloodshed” separates itself even further from the pack with a combination of hammering riffs and bone-crunching percussive patterns, all topped off with a captivating vocal appearance from Killswitch Engage‘s Jesse Leach (who, in my opinion, sounds the best he has in years here), that recalls the best of Arkansas legends Living Sacrifice.
And then, of course, there’s the slowed-down, steroid-injected Sepultura-isms of “Bullet for a Stone”, which provides further proof (if any were needed) that Terminal Nation‘s devastating guitar duo of Tommy Robinson and Dalton Rail definitely learned their craft – self-taught as it may be – at the proverbial feet of the masters.
But while this mid-section of the album is undoubtedly home to the record’s best moments that’s not to say that the rest of Echoes… isn’t worth listening to – “Cemetery of Imposters” is the record’s only real swing-and-a-miss – as the climactic pairing of “Immolation (Of Mother Earth)” and chunky chug-a-thon “Release the Serpents” (featuring a suitable intense appearance from Integrity‘s Dwid Hellion) make for a powerful closing statement (the sinister, synth-tinged finale of the latter in particular leaves a lasting impression).
Ultimately, then, Echoes of the Devil‘s Den reminds me a lot of last year’s divisive “comeback” album from Fuming Mouth – albeit coming from a different direction – in that, while it isn’t perfect, it definitely contains the seeds for even bigger, better things for Terminal Nation (as well as a handful of the band’s best songs to date), which will hopefully take root here and now and help them grow into something even more monstrous (in the best possible way) in the future.