Hell's Unholy Fire (re-release)

In crashing contrast to the gentility of my reviewing project for last week (Ihsahn’s saxophone-inflected philosophising) here comes Nunslaughter, no doubt masturbating profusely and publicly over a crude drawing of Jesus's crucifixion, or something. Not new material, though it is unlikely to be more than five minutes before the next split or live album if that’s what you are after. Instead, behold a rerelease of their out-of-print full-length debut, Hell’s Unholy Fire. Eighteen blasts of lowbrow Satan worship constituting a mere 30 minutes of the crudest death metal imaginable, mashed together from squelching riffs and Don of the Dead’s surprisingly intelligible vocals.

The appeal here lies exclusively in its troglodyte simplicity. Listening to Nunslaughter, when each week you are also getting sent mp3s to review by people like Ihsahn or Ne Obliviscaris, is like returning home to the bog people after several years interloping in high society. Hell’s Unholy Fire drips with great riffing. Death by the Dead has a swinging energy like a rudimentary version of Motorhead- but while Lemmy et al. rocket along like a high speed traing, this is a barrow forged from twigs and moss (the title is a bit like Killed by Death, as well). The Dead Plague and Buried Alive are constructed around stomping grooves a bit like Obituary. Signature tune Nunslaughter has a blackened edge. Of course, while they no doubt listen to all of these influences, Nunslaughter never really properly sound like any of them. The crudity of the delivery gives it a sense of drooling stupidity that is quite distinct. The fact that tracks are so short and compact gives it an incongruously neat, concise feel.

Great, obviously, even on the lesser tracks. Perversion of Gore isn’t a classic song, but then, it is called Perversion of Gore, and so gets away with it. Everyone probably knows this already, but if not, get it down yourself.