Whenever I stumble across a band of hardcore dudes trying their hand at death metal, I can’t help but cringe. Yeah, go ahead and brand me an elitist, but as impactful as bands like Obituary and Dying Fetus accidentally ended up being on today’s modern hardcore scene, it feels wrong when they end up on festival lineups consisting exclusively of bands still living out the high school jock archetype. And when said bands eventually make *ahem* “the metal record”, it usually comes off as forced and contrived, regurgitating cliches of yesteryear without contributing anything new to the bigger picture. With all this in mind, I treaded across Damnation’s Veil, the sophomore album from Ninth Realm, lightly.
With its undeniably sick cover art and battle-themed logo, this album started picking up steam on Bandcamp before it was even released. The folks over at the Metal Archives describe Ninth Realm as crossover thrash, which had me seriously questioning myself. Based off the cover alone, it didn’t seem Damnation’s Veil would boast any crossover-isms, at least not in the traditional sense. And it doesn’t. Though I can’t speak for Ninth Realm’s past output, Damnation’s Veil is a straight-away death/thrash album guided by an unrelenting crossover spirit. Whereas fellow crossover crushers Enforced teeter on the edge of classic death/thrash, Ninth Realm embrace it as the forefront of their sound.
The opening title track gives us a good idea of what Ninth Realm are all about. We’ve got frostbitten death, hyper-aggressive thrash, and two-step friendly crossover, all colliding head on to create a sound that’s truly crushing and unrelenting on all fronts. “Cohorts of the Abyss” expands upon this approach even further, taking force with such conviction that one might even accept “crossover death/thrash” as a legitimate new subgenre of metal. Come “Imbued in Hellfire”, and the middle section of the album in general, I noticed an interesting pattern forming. It seems as if many of these songs, intentional or not, were homages to specific giants of death metal’s golden age.
Starting with “Imbued”, the lumbering riffs and knuckle-dragging demeanor remind us of how impactful Obituary were to today’s modern scene. The occult atmosphere and hornets nest riffage of “Rituals in Thar’amath” recall Morbid Angel, while the grinding, blackened death blitzkrieg of “Wyrd of Strideborne” evokes shadows of Angelcorpse. Come “Beyond the Void”, “Vengeance Unto Rot”, and “All Hail Treachery”, Ninth Realm zero in on the “thrash” side of the death/thrash equation, serving up a feast of rampaging riffs reminiscent of classic Exodus. Mosh first, think second! Come the closing “Twilight’s Blade”, the band goes even further back in time with a feral speed-thrasher that would’ve fit between Exciter and Raven on a mixtape in ’83.
Though the songs don’t pack as forceful of a punch as the aforementioned Enforced, or stand as singular within the crossover realm as High Command, Ninth Realm certainly deserves to be in the conversation when it comes to the most innovative crossover acts of the ’20s. This is far from your “go through the motions, hardcore bros who discovered metal last year” affair. The riffs are unrelenting, the production is powerful, and the album as a whole never loses grip, doubling down on the band’s battle-ready attitude. Whether you’re a punk or a headbanger, Damnation’s Veil is certainly worth your while.
7 out of 10
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Genre: Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Obituary, Enforced, High Command
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