Although their debut, 2008’s Purgation, was a blastbeat-infested storm of Deathcore wrath that actually holds up quite well compared to some, Bristol-based Trigger The Bloodshed have turned away somewhat from Deathcore for the follow-up, something that frequent readers will know I support wholeheartedly. Despite my Deathcorephobia, Purgation was a surprisingly decent listen due to the band sounding more like a Brutal Death version of Behemoth than anything else, yet seventeen tracks of it was far too much, and if there’s a lesson that Trigger The Bloodshed need to learn it’s to overcome this rather monotonous aspect to their sound. If you’ve heard little of the modern breed of brutal (small ‘b’) Death Metal bands then you might well be rather impressed with The Great Depression, which rushes forth to meet all comers with pure furious intensity and rarely lets up, but time and experience prove this to be less than what had been hyped.

At the start of a first listen the chances are that this will quite impress, the technical morass that comes forth to meet you easily challenging the likes of Hate Eternal for dominance as the band strive for ultimate brutality. All members play their hearts out (this is a good opportunity to mention the comparative youth of the band, doing my damndest not to sound patronising, but they really are rather excellent, especially drummer Max) providing a result which is most like a cross between Origin and Cannibal Corpse. The band do not cease their attack, everything coming at you thick and brutal, and it’s a fair bet that it’ll take a few listens before you even manage to tell the songs apart – I still can’t, in most cases. Aside from the odd bit of ambience (the track I) or the epic closing section of Warbound, a lot of songs seem to be the same thing over and over again, and whilst it sounds ok if you take them individually, an album full of this verges on the boring. Origin and Cannibal Corpse manage to write actual songs that are memorable; Trigger The Bloodshed fail to do this.

Thank the Death Metal gods, then, for Infliction Of Tophet, which is the other good song on this album, starting with technical and thick Thrash riffing before twisting rather neatly into a speedy blastfest. It’s like one of the shorter songs from a recent Nile album that counts as a single, not quite as good as the Ithyphallic gods, true, but indicative of some songwriting ability, and if they can develop this then Trigger The Bloodshed may just deserve all the hype they’ve been receiving. For the moment, although The Great Depression is not a bad album, it really isn’t especially good, and you’d be better of relistening to your Behemoth and Origin collections. The band are still young, however, and there’s a good chance that album number three will be excellent... fingers crossed.