I think from now on whenever I write a review of one of their artists, I should begin with the statement: Thank heaven for Hell’s Headbangers. The label specializes in supporting (and re-distributing) some of the most raw, evil and excellent extreme metal on the planet. Much of this consists of down and dirty rippers from bands like Deathhammer and Abominator. However, the label still has the capacity to release more polished, grandiose productions like the latest from UK death metal act, Scythian.
I first discovered the band on one of the labels excellent (and FREE!) compilations, with the title track for Hubris in Excelsis. According to the bandcamp page for the album, it embodies a mix of “Sodom, Bathory, and Angelcorpse – or perhaps more specifically, INRI-era Sarcofago, '90s Zemial, and Desaster's Tyrants of the Netherworld.” You’d be hard-pressed to find a metalhead with good taste who wouldn’t be thrilled to hear something like that. And the influences certainly shine through here on tracks both brutal and melodic like “Apocalyptic Visions” and “Three Stigmata.” Though I’m not sure they’d want this comparison, I definitely hear echoes of peak-era Dark Tranquility and other Swedish bands reverberating through the compositions. And while there’s definitely some first-album Bathory here, there’s shades of the more heroic spirit of Hammerheart as well. But it’s true the band definitely owes a great debt to Angelcorpse (and by extension, Hell Awaits-era Slayer).
But I shouldn’t just chalk everything up to the band’s influences. There is certainly a unique style developing with this band. One that takes an emphasis on the raw and evil-intervals of black and death metal, but pushes it through the sheen of more melodic structures. I also have to applaud the band for using a reading of Wilfred Owen’s fantastic and devastating poem of The First World War, “Dulce et Decorum Est.”
For this and other reason, I highly recommend exploring the world Scythian has begun to create here. And hey, Fenriz played them on his show, so how off-base could I be here?
8/10
Favorite songs: “Hubris in Excelsis,” “Three Stigmata” and “Dystopia”
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