Western Australian deathsters Crypt Crawler are are approaching veteran status now, with a six year recording career spawning three full lengths and a host of EPs, singles and a live album to their name.

The Immortal Realm is their new release, a spitting, bludgeoning Hellion of an album that keeps the listener on their toes throughout with an impressive display of angry riffage and even angrier vocalising. Indeed, when the gentle, keyboard-led intro to final track Gateway of Souls oozes from the speakers you could be forgiven for uttering an audible sigh of relief, such is the relentless assault the band have subjected your ears to for the preceding half hour or so…

In fact Gateway… is perhaps the best song here, if only because it displays more of a sense of dynamics than the previous seven tracks. Don’t get me wrong, tracks like Maze to Insanity and Higher Society  (which features a guest guitar spot from death metal Titan James Murphy) are more than worthy additions to the Aussie death canon, but the stadium thrash/death pretensions of GoS just seem to be an obviously more comfortable fit. This may just be this reviewer’s own personal tastes clouding judgement, of course, but to these ears everything just ‘clicks’ on this final track in a way it doesn’t quite manage elsewhere.

Still, that’s for you to decide, should you opt to shell out for The Immortal Realm; If you’re au fait with the Aussie death sound then the purchase will be a no brainer, but even if you aren’t there’s plenty of brutality for your buck here if you’ve ever broken out the ol’ air guitar to the sounds of bands like Slayer or The Haunted. Get down that record shop now!

The Immortal Realm is out Now.