Black

Nineteen Eighty-Seven is the year the band once known as Death Sentence changed their moniker to Nunslaughter. Judging by the band's output, 1987 is also the year they think death metal hit its peak. If you place a premium on innovation; if you want your bands to expand upon, transcend or push forward the genre, don't bother (and fuck off while you're at it).

The formula these Ohioans stick to is the oldest of hats; so old it's moldy and fraying and still stinks of the corpse it was stolen from. The guitar has a trebly crunch. Zack Massacre plays mean and dirty with no aspirations to be recognized by jazz critics or to reach new levels of brutality. Skin-beater Jim Sadist plays fast, but speed isn't his ultimate goal nor is he concerned with complexity, but when he does add in a fill he makes it count. Best of all, the drum sound hasn't been processed to hell. Don of the Dead is just a pointed tail and pair of horns short of demon with his raspy vocals which are nevertheless clear even when pronouncing words like “grimoire”.

Just like in the band's earliest days, their music is indebted primarily to thrash, especially of the Brazilian and Teutonic variety. Yet they're undeniably DM. The lyrics definitely tick the right boxes. This EP covers the topics of blasphemy, black magic and serial killing. Add one about zombies and you'd have a crash course in 80s DM subject matter. The songs are written and sung with bile but not the glum seriousness of anticosmic claptrap. Nunslaughter are able to find variety within their style constraints. Despite, actually because of, the restrictiveness of their formula, minor embellishments strike hard. In the bridge of “Fuck the Bastard”, Massacre throws in a few basic licks that nevertheless add some flair. When “Before You Cast a Spell” slows down for its second half it could be a normal breakdown, but he alternates the chugs with ghostly arpeggios.

“Grave Grave” has the longest run time, but the length of the actual song is the shortest after you cut out the pointless addendum of a distorted voice speaking over atmospheric noises. That's the only major flaw. Well, that and the fact seven minutes is short even by EP standards.

Black will eventually appear on an installment of The Devil's Congeries compilations provided Hells Headbangers continues releasing them which they seem to be doing albeit without haste. For those who don't want to wait and/or like collecting physical media, the CD bears some stylish art design. Not only are the insert and tray card black with black printing, but the disc itself is black with black printing. There was also a (now rare) 7” vinyl that came in a jacket made of ripped Bible pages which you have to admit is pretty cool.