Comfortably ensconced in a career that has so far seen the release of three increasingly impressive EPs, Western Australians Kimura have finally beaten the bullet and pulled a full-length album out of the bag…

And very nice it is too. Australia has long been a haven for the band’s brand of raging death-cum-thrash, and Circle The Prey is a worthy addition to that ever-growing canon. As perhaps expected, the band don’t seek to bring too much that’s new to the table, preferring instead to hone and intensify the genre’s existing pillars.

Latest single Sharpen the Bones is a good snapshot of the band in action; an absolutely coruscating production gives absolutely no quarter to the ears of the listener whilst at the same time presenting the band in crystal clear fury. It’s as good an ‘own label’ sound as I’ve heard in a while, with every member given a chance to scourge aural canals. Listen with headphones, and your eyes shut, and you’d swear Josh Kelly was inches away from your lug hole roaring his hymns of degradation and disarray.

Suffer Slow is absolutely devastating, and you’ll welcome the brief respite given by the instrumental interlude Damnare Pt.1 – Judgement, that follows it. If Kelly is front and centre leading the charge, the three men behind him form the battering ram that’s set to press home the band’s advantage. Ian McAllister is a frighteningly good modern metal guitarist, able to switch between hammering riffs and slashing solos at the pinch of a harmonic, whilst the rhythm section… let’s just say that if they don’t actually wish severe sonic harm on your innards then I’d be very surprised indeed. Very surprised. So thanks, Gordo Steinberger and your bass playing associate Kyle Baker, for rearranging my liver and spleen….

Hell Is Coming is another highlight, fusing some neat staccato riffage to another blast furnace vocal and deft percussive assault, and although the band’s music and the subject matter they tackle is unrelentingly grim, I have to say that I keep gleefully pressing play every time this album ends to relive the fun all over again… That possibly says as much about me as it does Kimura, but my word they cook up a fantastically enjoyable riot of violence on Circle The Prey… Thanks you blokes!

Circle The Prey releases on October 23rd.