The Absence of Light

I was never a huge Slayer or Sepultura fan back in the day but have since come to really enjoy Slayer's first few albums, and now hearing The Troops of Doom's latest EP (the band features original Sepultura guitarist Jairo "Tormentor" Guedz and they cover "Antichrist" from the Bestial Devastation demo), I may have to go back and revisit the Brazilians' early discography. This EP contains two new songs plus an intro, the cover and two demo versions of the new songs. All of it is savage, pummeling thrash with proto-death vocals in a combination that will make your ears wish they'd never been born. I actually like the raw, less polished versions of "Act 1 - The Devil's Tale" and "Act II – The Monarch" as they sound more evil and menacing, but either version does the trick. The cover is well done and, again, makes me wonder why it took my taste so long to open up to this kind of metallic fury. If The Absence of Light is any indication of what we can expect from the next The Troops of Doom full-length album, count me in.