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Canada's Black Pestilence have been around for over a decade, but their upcoming sixth album, Hail the Flesh, is my first exposure to them. They started as a solo project by bassist/vocalist Valax, but have morphed into a three-piece over the years, all the while peddling a sound they describe as "Black Metal with Punk/Noise influence". I was slightly skeptical when I first read that, but it turns out that it mostly translates to dirty, punky Black/Thrash that occasionally makes feedback noises and consistently slaughters everything in its path.

The songwriting is unsurprisingly simple and direct for most of this, largely being led by abrasive, energetic riffing and filthy, hateful snarls while occasionally slowing down a little for some rollicking bass work and startling melodic leads. However, the band has a bad habit of repeating themselves too much, especially in the choruses, so while they're all fun and engaging, even the shorter songs can start to overstay their welcome. The one exception to this is album closer "Ephemeral", which displays some slower tempos, pummeling heaviness, and surprisingly mature songwriting that shows the band pushing their sound to be a bit more than just angry, evil thrashing.

I can't say there's a lot of what I would call depth in this release, but who cares about stupid shit like that? This is just an odd 30 minutes of frenetic, uncompromising hatred and fury that shouts about Satan and hedonism, and sometimes that's all you really need. Recommended.