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The Revenge Project have quietly gone about being one of Bulgaria's best kept secrets for decades, releasing killer albums like Figment Paradise and Deceit-Demise without getting a lot of attention outside their homeland despite being among the most influential acts in their scene. That could be because of (or a cause for) the fact that they were never given much label attention, with all of their releases being strictly independent since the beginning way back in 2002. In that time, they have just unpretentiously gone along refining their sound into a tight, razor-sharp onslaught of Progressive Death Metal with elements of Black and Thrash, and their latest album, The Bequest of the Damned, sees them continuing that trend with style and power to spare.

The cornerstone of The Revenge Project's sound has always been later Death, and that hasn't really changed here. In fact, there's no great stylistic difference between this and earlier albums other than it's simply better: tighter playing, stronger songwriting, and vocals that range from deep bellows to more modern-styled screaming to give contrast and depth to both of those things, all without sounding commercial in the slightest. Highlights are hard to find, for every song is a furious, often thrashy riff-fest that would have made Chuck proud, such as the title track, "Wasted Lives," and the Vio-lence/Forbidden-esque "Reign of Rot," the latter of which really shows off some killer solos in the vein of Hanneman and King.

As always, The Revenge Project remains one of the strongest contenders for a local legend in their scene that just needs their big break to take the rest of the underground by storm. If given just the right amount of attention from you and I, maybe The Bequest of the Damned will be the start of that break.