Italians Husqwarnah head back to simpler times on their debut full-length offering; Opening with a face-melting roar (appropriately enough the first track is called Melting Face!), the band introduce themselves as a pleasing throwback to the early nineties, no more, no less…

Personally, I like it best when they slam the hammer down and go for the throat on superb tracks like Death Proof and the utterly coruscating Lived Once Buried Twice, which, along with one of the best titles for a song I’ve seen all year, contains some of the best paint-stripping metal I’ve heard too.

2021 has been a good year – in my not so humble opinion – for this kind of music, especially from Australian bands, but few have so convincingly captured the essence of ‘proper’ old school death as this band does on the two tracks mentioned. That’s not to say the rest of the album is not as good – Infernal Loop rattles along in tremendous fashion, picking up speed and threatening to run out of control before drummer Ricardo Rjillo reins things in a bit and convinces the band that a bit of grind might be apposite – but these two tracks really grab the listener in convincing, unrelenting fashion.

At the end of the day, reviewing music like this is pretty pointless- Maurizio Caverzan belches and roars in just the right proportion, whilst guitarists JP Lisi and Simone Rinaldi certainly know a decent wall of sound when they hear one, and the rhythm section (Rjillo augmented on bass by Lorenzo Corno) pounds and batters just as you’d hope. Criticism is rendered pointless if death metal moves you at a visceral level – and this album certainly possess the power to do that, over and over again. And if you’ve ever wondered what a crust/death band might sound like covering Rush, then wonder no more – all will be revealed if you snare yourself a copy of this album…

Front:Toward Enemy releases on December 3rd.