Nunslaughter: Hells Unholy Fire (2000)

Ah, Nunslaughter.  One of the most prolific bands in extreme metal.  The death metal, or as they refer to it "devil metal",  band drops multiple releases every year since the mid 1990's.  Yet the vast majority of those releases consist of singles, splits or EPs.  Very few of them are full-length albums.  In fact, Nunslaughter has only released four full-length albums despite forming in 1987.  And this one is their first full-length, 13 years after their formation.  One thing the band does do when they release a full-length though, is to fill it to the brim with songs.  This one has 18 songs on it.

Nunslaughter is unwavering in their style.  One knows exactly what to expect with a Nunslaughter release.  The songs are going to be fast.  They are going to be short.  They are going to be intense.  And they are going to be fairly simple and straightforward.  The band does not have a lot of technical ability, or at least not much that is shown.  There are generally only a few riffs per song, few, if any, solos.  This one follows that typical recipe, not a single song is longer than three minutes.  They fly by with neck-wrecking speed and are all generally based around one riff.

There is nothing pretty here.  Nunslaughter plays death metal with a raw and aggressive intensity that comes across as primal.  They sound like the death metal equivalent of a furious, rabid dog.  They have a sort of punk mentality to playing death metal.  There are no frills, just that same rabid intensity throughout.  But people familiar enough with Nunslaughter know that is to be expected.

This is the third full-length album I have picked up by Nunslaughter, as well as a few other splits.  This is not my favorite of those releases, it is a little more raw and not quite as refined as their later material.  Not to say there is much refinement later on, but the band seems to be still finding their sound here.  It is still a damn good release though.