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Burning Black – Underground Metal Webzine

MEPHISTO “Metal of Death” (CD, Bestial Burst Records 2005)

It’s good to hear bands that have recovered and “renewed” the old good sound of bands such Venom, Hellhammer, Sodom, Bathory or even Mötorhead… Recently I was greatly surprised by the Black/Thrash oriented new work of Dissimulation. Now Mephisto surprises me with a high quality Blackened Death/Thrash…This Italian band, formed back in 2003, released just one demo, called “Tyrant’s Return”, before this brand new debut album under the Finnish label Bestial Burst. Strong traces of bands such Venom, Hellhammer and Mötorhead could be found along the disc. Thrashing, dirty guitars drives the whole music through mid paced, heavy passages full of banging melodies and simple, but highly effective, riffs. The drumming is consistent and well executed, dealing perfectly with mid paced and some fast sections. The vocal work here is mid toned growling shrieks with some Thrash oriented vocalisations; like the 11th track “Antidisco Squad” (what a name!) where the vocals turn quite similar to Tom Araya screams. The whole music is simple but extremely enjoyable with Thrash Metal structures, Black Metal ambiances and Death Metal violence, all tracks are fucking great, but there’s a couple which stand out from the rest; “Motordeath” with its, obvious, Mötorhead-like riffing and melodies which makes the head banging impossible to resist, and “Iron Cross” a hateful and strong blackened piece of extreme Metal… both songs are my absolute favourites. Although “Metal Of Death” is their debut album, Mephisto sounds mature, obscure and strong. Even though they aren’t reinventing anything, their proposal is highly recommendable for all the TRUE Metal lovers and especially for those who enjoy the blackened sound of the mentioned bands.

Alvaro Pacheco