Crypt of Torment

Damn. Serpent Spawn are certainly checking all the right boxes with this first EP which, while short, is pretty much guaranteed to pin the listener to the ground with its mere intensity. Old-school ‘90s heavy metal is the name of the game, albeit with a more modern, clean and crisp production that nevertheless doesn’t take anything from the brutality of the band’s music. This is blazingly fast, precise, heavy death metal that’s bound to fuck you up if you try to headbang to it—you know the type. Quite rooted in U.S. East Coast death metal from the hey days, it’s not particularly original but doesn’t sound stale or dated. A headbanging good time.