I was not particularly familiar with Brazilian deadly thrashers Claustrofobia until a fellow reviewer told me that Candlelight had yet another thrash related band up for grabs. Since most thrash bands that come out of Brazil tend to possess a certain amount of quality, I took the bait, and well, this is damn good. It should however be noted that Claustrofobia‘s fourth album has just as much in common with death metal as with thrash metal. The guttural vocals will jump out and punch you in the face a long with fast rolling riffs that are extremely heavy. To be honest, I’m not the biggest death metal fan, but this grabbed me at once. May it be the Sepultura-like guitars and song-writing or the faint brutal touch of Cannibal Corpse, either way if you like fast, relentless and uncompromising death metal with loads of top notch thrash-moments that’ll make you bang the head like a maniac, Claustrofobia should definitely be on your list.

Even though this may seem a tad bit long with its fifteen tracks, it never really comes of as tiring in the very least. There are plenty of outstanding songs that consists of memorable riffs, rapid drums, and gut-wrenching growls that will rip the flesh of your face. The monotone nature that often strips death metal bands of their colour and make them easy to write off is simply not a factor here. These guys knows how to make their songs sound interesting be it two-and-a-half-minute straight-forward face-smashers or 5-minute slightly more melodic yet violent assaults like the brilliant Bonded By Blood-era Exodus-like Don’t Kill the Future that’ll actually remind you of the old days in a good way rather than making you wish you had a veteran band in your cd-player. Except the one interlude here, each song is as crushing as the other and as blood flows from your gashed head, Claustrofobia will do nothing to heal the damage.

There is not much more else to say without me sounding like a broken record, than that this may have been Candlelight’s most interesting outing in a while in between the tons of retro-trash acts that have spamming the metal universe for a while now. Claustrofobia deliver on all parts, and though this is absolutely nothing new, it’s a damn fun and entertaining listen even for metal-heads that are not too fond of death metal for some reason. I have not yet dug into this band’s past, but I guess I have to now as this kind of took me by surprise, and I like surprises. Highly recommended!