I must say I have a natural bias towards Earache releases. During the "Gods of the grind" era almost everything in my collection seemed to be from one of their signings, I was interested to see how things worked at their sister-label, Wicked World. True to form come Anata with their third release which is a brutal ear assault from the word go.

Make no mistake, this is a death metal band, pure and simple. These boys don’t fanny about with intros, they just dive straight in. From the first second of the first track you’re launched into a frenzy of insane riffs, intense drumming and growls that would make LG Petrov himself shake in his boots.

It’s hard not to sit up and listen when playing the album.

I usually play the CD’s I receive at work in the background and no other CD had me turning my head for a closer listen than this one. Masterful arrangements and jaw dropping drumming are present in every track, where most bands are running out of ideas at the fifth track. The sound is old school death metal yet somehow it doesn’t seem dated or boring. Think brutal yet melodic, trashy yet faster, familiar yet surprising and you’ve got an idea at what I’m getting at.

Cannibal Corpse and Napalm Death must be shitting themselves if they hear this album, and if they’re not... they should be. This is one of those must-have albums.