Slaughtbbath: Alchemical Warfare (2019)

I am not really sure what this band name means.  It appears to be a combination of the words "Slaughter" and "Sabbath".  Maybe it is a reference to the Canadian thrash metal band Slaughter and metal founders Black Sabbath.  I really have no idea.  What I do know is that South America has a long history of producing exceptional extreme metal since the mid 1980's when Sepultura formed.  And Slaughtbbath hails from Chile, a country that has given us Thornafire, Ripper, Apostasy and others. 

Slaughtbbath have been around for nearly 20 years, but this is only the band's second full-length album.  They have a lot of splits, demos and EPs out there though and tend to release something new almost every year.  No idea why the full-lengths are so rare then.

The album's title also seems to reference another potential influence: Slayer.  The band's sound is rooted in the primitive black/death metal of groups like the aforementioned Slayer and Sepultura (Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation only) and Sarcófago.  It is an extremely hateful and angry sound, filled with monstrous riffs, battering blast beats and demonic vocals.  It is filthy, vile, extremely fast and I fucking love it.

Slaughtbbath is not exactly the most original band out there, owing a lot to their South American forebears.  But that is not that important when the music is this good.  This narrowly missed my top ten list from last year.