'Waking A Dead Man' is an appropriately titled opener for such a power fest, but by no means the heaviest track on this album. 'Your Creator' builds the strength towards the sledgehammer classic 'Bleed As One' - and by now the amazing performance of Henry Moreno is taking new victims to the slaughter with every merciless, skin-splitting slam. This has to be one of the weightiest drum albums I have heard in a long time. The man must have sweated buckets recording this lot.

Very well sung, the vocals of Norman Skinner sound both heavy and intense and at times scream with the best, while always maintaining a refreshing understandability - avoiding the bloody unintelligible throat noises that sometimes pass for vocals and constantly rob me of enjoyment on so many extreme sounding albums.

'New Power Rises' is as hard as it's name suggests while 'The Sick Sense' starts out as a thoughtful, introspective sounding ballad then explodes into an aggressive middle section, before returning to original pace to end. Indeed it's the changes that make this album both challenging and interesting to listen to. 'Held Beneath' is a fantastic track and fights hard for the trophy of best on album with the very operatic sounding 'Succubus' - as good a closer as you are ever likely to hear.

A riff laden assault of noise and power with subtle melodic overtones, 'Feast For The Hated' is as heavy as a truckload of lead. Go get it!

MOO! pmsbull