The West Midlands has a rich history in extreme metal, and in the late 80’s early 90’s your favourite Extreme Metal band was as likely to of been from Birmingham as Florida, and it was quite normal to be having a pint in Costermongers sat opposite members of Benediction, Cerebral Fix, and Napalm Death!

And the scene has remained pretty stable, with lots of bands continuing to represent the West Midlands on the local, national and world stage, Anaal Nathrakh, Memoriam, Absolution and so many more…. and the heaviest city in the world keeps on turning out the goods with lots of ‘Old School and New School Death Metal’ which brings us nicely on to DeathCollector and their debut album ‘Death’s Toll’

Now I may be over egging the Brummie link, as to be fair, only half the band are from the West Midlands, with a Cumbrian and an Irishman thrown into the melting pot… but to hell with it, I’m running with it!! So what started as a lockdown project for Andy Whale (yes he from Bolt Thrower, Memoriam and Darkened) and Mike from Zealot Cult gained some incredible momentum, gathering up Lee from Bloodshed on Bass and Kieran from Ashen Crown on vocals.

Their debut EP Time’s up was met with such interest and appetite that the band was swept up for a full length release by Prosthetic Records, and the band wasted no time in getting that written, recorded and ready for our ears…

So here we are a few days before the release of Death’s Toll and I’m supposed to encapsulate the album in a few hundred words, to dissect and inspect the inner workings of an album of this magnitude…. fuck that’s a tough ask!!

Let’s get one thing straight… this album is a beast, from the outset… the drums… Andy Whale, seriously anyone who loves early Bolt Thrower and THAT drum sound, especially the Realms Of Chaos, Warmaster sound is going to pee themselves with glee, this is everything I want drums to sound like on a death metal album and more. Kieran, Kieran, Kieran… holy mother of god, the lad has some pipes, and his vocal range and delivery is absolutely outstanding… sometimes sounding like Karl Willets, meets Benediction era Barney but then throwing in those vocal tricks that comes from his more modern death metal and even deathcore approach (and sometime science) to vocals… it’s been worth all his social media reels to see how it’s got him to here!!

The guitar work from Mike, is immense and powerful, but sometimes ethereal and light where the tracks need that atmosphere, and Lee holds that bottom end together like a demon, driving, pulsating and demolishing all in it’s path.

The album, is 9 tracks, 38 minutes of some of my favourite Death Metal for decades, they make you want to be in the pit for that whole 38 minutes, it’s really difficult to provide a track by track breakdown… what do you say when the barrage of killer riffs, blast beats and hair curling vocals keep coming track after track…

I will put my bits on the chopping block and say that “Revel In The Gore” is my favourite track, I don’t even really know why…. it’s just the one that keeps making me go…urghhhhh!! (in a good way)

Seriously… I’m not going to go on and on anymore… If you love Death Metal pre-save the FUCK out of this album you will not be disappointed come Friday!

DeathCollector – Deaths Toll is out this Friday on Prosthetic Records