Ever since the ’80s, there’s been no shortage of metal bands named after iconic metal songs. Hell, Judas Priest alone can take credit for naming Exciter, Running Wild, and at least one of the two zillion Tyrants out there roaming the earth. Then we’ve got Motörhead, who spawned Overkill and technically Sepultura, the latter being the Portuguese translation of “grave” in reference to the song “Dancing on your Grave”. The list goes on from there: Sodom, Mayhem, and Bathory taking their names from Venom songs (“One Thousand Days in Sodom”, “Mayhem with Mercy”, and “Countess Bathory” respectively.), Steel Bearing Hand branding themselves after a lyric from Celtic Frost’s “The Usurper” (which also spawned the band Usurper), and so forth.
However, this review isn’t about any of those bands. This review is about Körgull the Exterminator: A blackened thrash horde hailing from Spain. Those in the know will immediately recognize the name, as it shares a moniker with the classic 1986 Voivod rager off their sophomore album, Rrröööaaarrr. Now as someone who never cared much for Voivod’s proggy explorations outside of the tech-thrash of Killing Technology (1987), this band’s name immediately caught my attention. Could we have an early Voivod worship band on our hands? Well, not exactly.
While Körgull’s latest album, Built to Kill, most definitely boasts the chaotic riffage and deranged mentality of early Voivod albums, there’s also nods to Kreator, Sodom, Venom, and all the other usual suspects who laid the foundation for all metal to follow. This is a ripping black/thrash attack with virtually zero influence past 1987 in arrangement, production, and delivery. In other words, Built to Kill so effectively captures that middle ground between the rise of Venom and the subsequent advent of black metal’s second wave. Cuts like “Exterminator”, “Death to Human Race”, and “Ritual Suicide” demonstrate this with deadly accuracy.
Filling out the rest of the outing are songs that emphasize the “black” side of black/thrash. Wicked hymns like “The Devil’s Sea” and “Built to Kill” stand out for their sinister riffing and all around sense of unease. Yes, they thrash as hard as any other song on here, but if this was 1985, chances are your average beer-chugging, denim jacket-clad maniac wouldn’t get down as easily to this as they would Metallica or Exodus. “The Nine Circles of Hell” boasts metalpunk attitude in the ancient tradition of Motörhead and Venom, while the closing “Count Estruch” stands head and shoulders above all as the blackest and bleakest on this outing.
Built to Kill lives up to its name, as every song on here is built to accomplish exactly that. More than just your run of the mill blackened thrash album, this is one that’s bound to earn repeated spins throughout the year, if only for the band’s incorporation of freakout riffage akin to Sabbat (Japan) and the aforementioned Voivod. While part of me wishes the whole album would lean more in that direction, I have no problem with neck-snappers that sound like they could’ve been recorded by Kreator in between Endless Pain and Pleasure to Kill. Kill, this album will!
7 out of 10
Label: Xtreem Music
Genre: Black/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Voivod, Kreator, Sodom