LEAD INJECTOR

Away from the glossy bombast of modern metal, filth and ignominy reign supreme. Dresden, Germany's LEAD INJECTOR, formed in 2022, are a new and brilliantly threatening force for heavy metal squalor, . Entirely impervious to current trends, these young diehards have dedicated themselves to raising hell, with a sound that borrows directly from the great and grotesque of thrash, speed and proto-black metal, but adds several metric tons of vitriol and youthful spite to the formula. "Witching Attack" is an explosive first foray, with so much dirt, blood and broken glass under its fingernails that those exposed to it will definitely require a shower afterwards. This is the metal your parents warned you about, and it's obnoxiously thrilling.

There is rarely a shortage of bands in thrall to VENOM and BULLDOZER, but it remains unusual to hear a band so fiercely committed to the crusty metal cause. LEAD INJECTOR are a three-man whirlwind, armed with songs that salute the greatness of the early '80s while exhibiting huge amounts of feral energy and songwriting intelligence. From its title downwards, "Witching Attack" is a drunken, back-alley knifing set to furious, hell-for-leather sonic hostility that crackles with lobotomized antagonism. They may be young, but this band know their history and have harnessed the raw power of metal's early evolution to serve their own misanthropic, debauched ends. Songs like explosive opener "Siege Upon Heaven" and the superbly snotty "Sacrifice This Bitch" could arguably have been released at any point over the last 45 years, but there is much freshness lurking in between the foulness of the riffs and the barbaric primitivism that drives them.

LEAD INJECTOR stab and thrash like old hands, with a gift for gruesome hooks and horrific, blasphemous imagery. Much like fellow countrymen SODOM and DESTRUCTION, they get the balance between technical prowess and unholy chaos just right, occupying a sweet spot between obscure, underground horror and exhilarating, pit-baiting rock 'n' roll. The production is reassuringly raw and grim, but it packs a monstrous punch, as the likes of "Evil Executioner" and "Angel Destructor" throw their weight around in true antisocial speed metal tradition. A sustained riot of violence (pun intended),"Witching Attack" is not bereft of variety, with songs that range from the title track's short, sharp shitstorm, to the more adventurous likes of the six-minute "Siege Upon Heaven" and carnivorous closer "Nuclear Antichrist". Nonetheless, this is an exercise in brute force and myopic militancy, and one of the most exciting debuts to emerge from Europe in recent memory. LEAD INJECTOR are a six-legged dose of poisonous adrenalin, and their debut album is absolutely not to be fucked with. A bright, belligerent and bilious future awaits.