Revilement - Pillars of Balance (Coyote Records)

Revilement's debut album Pillars of Balance should carry a warning; a warning that listening to it may cause you to soil your trousers. It is a sonic assualt of the highest order.

This Taiwanese/Canadian (intriguing!) brutal death metal outfit was formed in 2006 and has knocked out a demo (Heathen Harvest) and a four track EP (Human Vivisection, 2009) but Pillars takes it all up a notch or twenty.

The opening track is also the album's title and it's a thick assault of drums and guitars; the vocals from Joe Reviled are delivered in true death metal style; like a lot of death metal singers, Joe does, on occasion, border on 'Cookie Monster' impersonations but on the whole he delivers a quality performance. Just when you think it can't get any madder the sound manages to get bigger and thicker. Props to producer CJ Kao and J.S.Stoddard, who mastered the album.

Pity the Humans is technically spot on. The squealing guitar flourishes are dropped in all the right places and the drumming is thunderously bang on. There's a great balance between the slow crushing parts and viciously fast parts and while I don't claim to understand half of the lyrics, Joe's guttural vocals fit well. Degradation to Extinction shows the stunning drum work of Billy Su to perfection, the drums match perfectly with Allen Wang's genius guitar work with sections that threaten to slice off the listener's ears and feed them to a passing pack of wild dogs. This truly is easy listening for Satan. The word 'crushing' comes up a lot in my review notes. That and 'absolutely fucking mental'...

My only complaint is (once again) that the bass needs more prominence; Vic Chao's bass is there but (for me) it needs a higher profile. The problem with so much death metal is the fact that the bass is often just keeping time and playing root notes - give it some room to shine, I say! Terminal Sedation delivers more brain jamming riffage. Brutal death metal divides the masses but for those with discernment, Pillars will definitely supply what you're looking for (that is if you're looking for levels of absolute skull bursting heaviness).

Tail Devouring Serpent has some superb time changes and I must keep doffing my cap to Billy's drum work, which is magnificent against the guitars. The Medjai's Return makes me think that Joe's throat must get pretty fucked up after a Revilement gig, he provides some nifty vocal work and I reckon this would be a sweet band to see live with the whip-like guitars, heaving drums and pumping bass all sexing it up with each other...Hang on! Vic's bass is to the fore! Yes! The bass is there! This one's a personal favourite of mine.

Path of Apophis has Revilement's 'Stonehenge' opening, for a moment I was anticipating the obligatory acoustic track but no! It's an epic spazz out in all departments. Everyone's going totally mental and there is some insane yet inspired guitar work.

Tracks eight to eleven are from the Human Vivisection EP and I'm not sure if they've been remixed or recorded as I haven't heard the original but the track of the same name certainly opens with a different sound and/or production values to the previous seven tracks. The guitars are more crunchy against the drums - a crispness that takes me back to my wretched youth. It really does has that old school death metal vibe. Peverse Malevolence is gorgeous; it's not over-produced and you can hear every ring of the percussion. Raping the Comotose (a hobby of mine, oddly enough...) has inhuman drumming and truly violates the mind and ears. In a good way.

Last track Feeding A Mind Corrupted is some more of the same - good, solid EVIL EVIL brutal death metal. It's a corker of an album and with the addition of the last four tracks, you're kind of getting a bit of Revilement's back catalogue. Surely a good thing.