Nunslaughter - Red is the Colour of Ripping Death
Hells Headbangers
Death Metal
14 songs (34:17)
Release year: 2021
Hells Headbangers
Reviewed by Goat

Only their fifth full-length in a career spanning over thirty years, these slaughterers of nuns are producing some of their best work to date here. They've become known for their exhaustive release schedule, pumping out the live albums and splits like some unholy combination of Iron Maiden and Horna, but have pulled back a little in the last year or two, releasing only an EP, split, and live album across 2020-2021. Until now; Red is the Colour of Ripping Death is a far better album than you'd have expected from Nunslaughter, who even fans would admit are not always the most solid and reliable of acts. This is different - pressing play on this unleashes banger after banger into your ears, nearly every single track present being killer and worthy of called such in the bar below. The band's usual blackened death maelstrom has been pushed back a little and clarified in sound thanks to a surprisingly clear production from guitarist Noah Buchanan. Sure, it's still raw, and Nunslaughter still attack their instruments with plenty of punkish attitude. But they sound good, keeping their songwriting sharp and reminding you more of Polish veterans Vader than anything too sloppy, unloading exhilarating death metal stompers, one after the other.

You don't need to make desperate jokes about nuns' laughter when the metal is this excellent. And it's not just solid, there's enough real variety here to make it a fun listen. Anti-Catholic grinding dirges like Beware of God, just groovy enough to be headbangable whilst driving along like a more rabid Deicide, are placed alongside thrashier cuts like Black Cat Hanging or the brutal Annihilate the Kingdom of God, probably one of the heaviest pieces present. Add some slower, doomier cuts like Dead in Ten or Casket Lid Creaks, and the album seems downright experimental compared to past Nunslaughter opuses! With an average song length of two to three minutes, it's plain that if you don't vibe with a track another will be along quickly enough - yet this never becomes relevant thanks to the general quality. The whole album is just over thirty-four minutes long and is very replayable, and it's tempting to name it as a discography highlight. Whatever the sloppy charms of a Nunslaughter album, like a suspiciously wet kebab at the end of a drunken night out that you eat regardless of health concerns, at their best the band can make some thrilling death metal and Red is the Colour... shows that they're more than capable of making an excellent album, that they can do more than entertain for a ten-minute split or a booze-fuelled live show. Ripping, indeed.

Killing Songs :
All, particularly Broken and Alone, Beware of God, Casket Lid Creaks
Goat quoted 84 / 100
Other albums by Nunslaughter that we have reviewed:
Nunslaughter - The Supreme Beast reviewed by Andy and quoted no quote
Nunslaughter - Hell's Unholy Fire (re-release) reviewed by Charles and quoted 80 / 100
Nunslaughter - Goat reviewed by Tony and quoted 77 / 100
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