Deformation of the Holy Realm

Dutch band Sinister is a model of death metal consistency. Deformation of the Holy Realm is their fourteenth album and it contains over 44 minutes of blasting drums, bludgeoning riffs and guttural bellows that, apart from moody opening and closing tracks ("The Funeral March", "Entering the Underworld"), rolls like a bulldozer over your eardrums. The production is excellent, allowing all the instruments to be heard without sacrificing aggression. The guitar solos didn't jump out at me, but I have to say the riffs are so clean and sharp, I could not stop abusing the air guitar. Sinister are not breaking any molds, so it isn't like you haven't heard stuff like the songs on Deformations of the Holy Realm before, from Sinister for one, but man is it just savage fun to crank up. Death Metal has never been my go-to subgenre and this album isn't as good as the band's last effort (Syncretism from 2017) but Sinister don't try to be fast for the sake of being fast, gross for the sake of being gross or technical for the sake of being technical. They just play good metal.